Listen
by MaMoray
Summary: Kurt's suffering from bilateral hearing loss, and it's progressing to a possible danger zone. If that weren't scary enough, he has yet to tell any one of his friends.; AU; Eventual Klaine
1. Chapter 1

"I'm sorry Mr. Hummel, but there isn't much we can do."

"You're a doctor, shouldn't you be able to at least _try_ to give us some optimistic news?" Burt asked, frustrated, from his seat before the doctor's desk.

"All I can say is, we have to wait it out. Hearing loss isn't the worse that can happen to a person. Really, we just need this month of wait time before the next test, to test his other ear. It's important to preserve that one most, because while the right ear is steadily losing decibels, the left has had no sudden shift towards hearing loss. That's the only optimistic news I can give you. It'd be far too much of a risk to perform a cochlear implant surgery on the right ear. It'd honestly be a waste of time and money."

Kurt's face was as white as snow; he shakily raised his hand towards his right ear and caressed its outer shell. It didn't feel any different, so why was this happening to him?

He swallowed audibly, and shunted the tears behind his eyes, to ask his most important question.

"W-will this affect my singing?"

The doctor stared at him for a moment, his brown eyes shifting, before his mouth formed the grim line of a frown.

"It's a possibility, Mr. Hummel, some people don't realize how much hearing loss can affect a person. The sudden shift in loss of certain undertones, can possibly affect your ability to garner singing levels. However, that can be handled with additional lessons, I'm sure. If you have an observant person on hand, to point out your moments of inability to find the tone or key, whichever, you're supposed to be singing at, you'll adjust. It's almost like learning to walk again, except with hearing. You need to adjust to these new sensations. Hearing loss is a fickle thing. There's a possibility it could affect your balance, and cause you to have sudden fits of loss of equilibrium."

"I didn't realize it could be so… life-changing," Burt muttered, he couldn't believe how life continued to work against his son. It just didn't make sense, couldn't the kid catch a break?

"Honestly, this month will show us how the hearing loss may affect your son, if he weren't a singer, I'd recommend you focus on his social interactions most. Hearing is a sensation many people take for granted, like seeing. It's a gift we have, that most people don't realize is important. It affects everything we do, and with that, the loss of it affects everything we do."

Kurt's throat felt as if he'd lose the ability to breathe soon too, the air in this room felt stiff and suffocating. He didn't know how he'd be able to handle this new development.

His life was getting so much better. He'd just tied at Regionals with not just his new friends at Dalton, but his family, New Directions. Why couldn't he revel in his victories, just once? When would he get his chance to relax? When would fate deem it that he had lived through enough to be given a reprieve?

Tears of frustration leaked through, his eyes burned with the sensation of those tears. Burt pulled his son closer, to wrap him in a warm hug.

"I'm so sorry, to be delivering this news so bluntly." Doctor Hine's voice sounded apologetic, but his voice fell upon deaf ears. Kurt and his father were in their own world of grief, trying to come to terms with this new ordeal.

The doctor left the room, muttering his need to retrieve their paperwork before they leave.

Burt's bloodshot eyes connected with his son's as they both sat up.

"You realize we have to tell Carole and Finn?"

Kurt just looked down at his hands; he had no answer for an outcome that was inevitable.

"And your friends Kurt."

Kurt's head shot up, "I don't know if I'm ready for that part yet Dad. What if the Warblers kick me out? There's a large possibility I could affect their ability to harmonize."

"Then they're not true friends, no matter what, we'll be able to work this out, but in order for this month's observation to go well I can't just have the teachers watching out for you. Those students will be able to notice changes either way. I'll leave the Warblers up to you to tell, but, Kurt, this isn't something to mess around with."

"Don't you think I know that?" Kurt bit out harshly. He was scuffing his eyes with the edge of his blazer. They had come straight from Dalton for this appointment in the city, and Kurt wished he had never left.

"It was just supposed to be a yearly check-up, Dad, I was fine last year. The hearing loss hadn't increased at all!"

"Have you been using your iPod, despite the many times I've said you shouldn't? I don't know why I let you keep it after your doctors explicitly said you shouldn't!" his father growled angrily, obviously prepared to blame himself for his child's pain.

"No dad," Kurt mumbled. It was true, he hadn't been using his iPod as much as he use to. That didn't mean he had followed most of the other rules his doctors had set forth, however.

He was born with a distinct loss of hearing in his right ear, or, at least, that's what Doctor Hine's theorized. His family didn't know of it until he was 10, and had to do one of those silly school hearing tests.

Half the decibels of his right ear were nonexistent; he couldn't hear a thing below a certain pitch. It never seemed obvious to Kurt until he went for his hearing exam, which had been instated to once a year after the loss of decimals was discovered.

He had thought this year's test would be the same as the others; boring, frustrating, and a waste of time. Instead, he had gotten the shock of his life.

He, Kurt Hummel, had bilateral hearing loss, and if he wasn't careful he could lose all of his hearing.

**TBC.**

**OH and this, Disclaimer: I own nothing! Yikes, almost forgot that.  
**

**AN:I just want to say much thanks to my beta: tocarveloveonherarms!**

**She's not only a great beta, but a great author too! So please, feel free to drop by her fanfiction [dot] net page and give her a review. If you're reading this, then you'll love her fiction! Mostly klaine and all lovely. :)**

**Thanks for taking the time to read this, there's more to come.**

**Review? I'd love to know what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2

Entering his families home didn't fill him with the warmth it usually did. Kurt usually loved returning home. It was his sanctuary away from the pressures of Dalton's workload, and his place to sleep the hours away. However, today didn't feel like it was going to be one of those days.

His hands were shaking as he pushed to open the front door with his keys, only to pause in the doorway, blocking his father from entering as well.

"Buddy, we got to tell them. Standing out here ain't gonna make it any easier."

His father's rough voice jarred Kurt enough for him to push the door open the rest of the way. Burt grasped his boy by the shoulders and gently guided him inside. Kurt fell into the living room couch without a care to his usual decorum. He had less than a few hours to absorb the news of his defect, and had yet to accept it, let alone grasp how to explain it. Compared to other issues his body could have had, this didn't seem like much of a problem, but it was still scary.

His body was working against him, against all his dreams, and he didn't know if he was ready to adapt as well as he should.

"Kurt?," Carole's tentative voice echoed from the doorway to his waiting ears. He stiffened upon hearing the shuffle of her feet against the carpet, she then sat herself beside him. In a few months, would he be able to hear that? Did it matter?

He wasn't quite sure yet.

"I don't know what to say, how to explain it." Kurt began softly. his eyes were bloodshot, and yet he still felt the tears were ready to erupt again at a moments notice.

"That's why I'm here kid, to help you along" Burt interrupted, he too emerged from the doorway and shuffled to sit on the other side of him.

Kurt's nervous huffs of breath were all they could hear in that silent room for a few minutes, until the loud bang of the door being thrown open and shut drowned the noise out.

"Mom, Burt, I'm home! What'd you call me from practice for? Kurt! I thought you weren't coming home this weekend." Finn entered the room bringing along an elusive ray of sunshine with his smile. He swept Kurt up in a bear hug he had not been anticipating.

"Hey Finn," Kurt greeted despondently.

"Woah, that doesn't sound good." Finn replied nervously as he released Kurt and sat at the last spot open, the armchair.

"Kurt and I, have some news we need to share." Burt breached the subject, as Kurt turned his attention to twiddling his hands about on his lap. He didn't want to focus on this conversation, he didn't want to believe it was happening.

He tried his best to ignore Carole and Finn's sharp intakes of breath, tried to ignore his father asking him to join in and explain. Everything seemed like a white noise to him.

Is this how life would be? Moments of clarity with voices popping into his consciousness, only for this sudden bout of silence to take over.

Finn crouched down before him, acting as he never had before, at least not with Kurt. Not often enough for Kurt to not be surprised by it.

"Dude, you're my brother. So whatever you think I'm thinking, well if it's bad, I'm not. I care about you man, and if I gotta turn down my music for you. If I gotta drive a block away from a construction site so you don't hear the drills, I will."

Kurt released the breath he didn't realize he had been holding, it all sounded like too much to him. It just seemed ridiculous to put his new family through this.

Carole grasped his chin, and gently guided his face up, until he had nothing in sight but the slight smile upon her face and her watery eyes.

"You are our son, and if we gave up our honeymoon for you to be safe, what makes you think that your hearing difficulties could change anything?"

"It's not that," Kurt muttered.

He _wasn't_ afraid of losing his family.

"I'm scared," he spoke so softly, his voice so full of emotion and gravely with the need to force his words out.

He's afraid of all the things he _can't_ say. All the things he loves most. His singing, his friends, his dreams. If this month doesn't go well, if the hearing loss progresses, what can he do? With so many things going wrong, he isn't quite sure if he's willing to try and make it go right.

Suddenly the room seemed so full, the world far too large, and he too small to handle all the things in his mind. He thrusted himself up from the couch, and darted towards his room. He thundered up the stairs, and locked himself within his room.

He enveloped himself within his quilt, and tapped on his iPod station.

The voice of Elphaba from Wicked was fighting to drown out the sounds of his father worriedly knocking of his door. Her high notes, and swooping sounds of sudden tone shifts, blew out the voices of Finn and Carole begging him to talk to them.

For one more night, just one more, he wanted to ignore the issues in his mind. Instead, he just listened to the music. He allowed himself to drift into a dream, where the world seemed so much easier, and he could hear all the sounds around him.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Upon waking in his stiff uniform, and having the sensation of a dry puffy face Kurt realized he couldn't ignore reality. So, instead of wallowing as he had done last night, he had a plan to hopefully shift things back into focus. He showered and dressed casually with an extra pep to his step. Usually it was due to his wearing his lovely designer clothes, but today it was because he felt he had an answer to his problem.

After a stilted breakfast, full of awkward questions and sympathetic looks, Kurt felt it prudent to just get it over with. He set his fork down and sighed.

"I just don't want you guys to treat me any differently. It's going to be hard enough with having to be moved to the front in all my classes. Not to mention, the unknown reaction of the Warblers, it'd just be easier, if we behaved as normal as we could, like the doctor suggested. Can we try that, please?"

He knew his voice was edging more towards begging than the mature tone of calm he had intended, but he needed this. He didn't want anything to change, that dream he had last night felt more than possible. Despite Doctor Hine's incessant need to hammer the point that a change was inevitable towards him countless times, he still felt that behaving as such would hinder his hopes for handling this situation better.

Burt and Carole shared some odd significant look before nodding towards him.

"Fine," Burt said ,"but you can't fault us if we feel the need to note down any evidence of your hearing loss we see."

"I know Dad, I was there when the Doctor asked us to do that too you know," Kurt snapped in response.

"Just because you're having some health issues doesn't mean I can't ground you for the rest of the weekend." Burt replied with a tight smile.

Kurt sagged with relief, at least he knew his father wouldn't treat him like a fragile flower. It's not that he particularly wanted to be forced in-doors, every weekend was his shopping weekend, but his dad tended to get protective in the rare moments Kurt got sick. It reassured him, in his father's case, that the man didn't pause in rebuking him, it meant he was still just a normal kid. His "new" brother on the other hand, now he was definitely more of an issue.

"Finn?" Kurt pinned his stepbrother with a glare and lift of his brow, hoping to get him to agree with silent intimidation.

"I can try, but what do you expect me to say to the rest of Glee Club?"

"I don't"

"What?"

"You are not to say a word to them Finn Hudson, understood?" Kurt growled as he stood and placed his dishes and Finn's in the sink. Obviously, he needed to take a more tenacious approach in regards to getting Finn to see his way of thinking.

"Hey, I wasn't done with that!"

"Well, perhaps if you listened the first time, then you'd still have that third serving of bacon on your plate, wouldn't you?"

"Fine, but you know how Rachel gets, she's scary! She'll know I'm hiding something!"

"Finn," Kurt huffed as he rubbed his forehead, it was throbbing from Finn's lack of comprehension for Kurt's hopes to keep this issue to himself.

"I'll tell them when I'm ready, and not a moment later, got it?" he growled.

"So, I take it you're fine with staying inside today son?" his dad interrupted casually.

Kurt's anger ceased for a moment, clouded by his sudden sense of confusion.

"Why?"

"You're grounded for pressuring your brother, you know he's easily influenced, it's not right to confuse the poor boy even more."

"Damn," Kurt muttered, he knew the intimidation tactics should have been left to a later time, but Finn could just be so _annoying _sometimes.

**TBC.**

**Disclaimer: Still don't, and never will [:'( ] own GLEE.**

**Thanks to my beta ToCarveLoveOnHerArms. :) She has been amazing as usual!**

**I don't want it to be a quick fix so. I hope this part doesn't seem like a filler, I hope it makes sense. :) Please review, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, and I've gotten some wonderfully insightful reviews. :)**

**Finally, I forgot to mention it here, but I ****_am _****living with bilateral hearing. So, I do have a bit of insight to it. **


	3. Chapter 3

After the dull weekend he'd had, shopping was a bust since Finn needed more "convincing" on what he could and could not say. Kurt had been a tad more grounded thanks to his tactics and should now feel happy to be back at school. Instead, Kurt found himself frowning at the plate of scrambled eggs set before him. The noise of the Dining Hall was aggravating him far more than it usually did. Most days he could ignore it, but now it felt like the volume was set higher than usual.

He surreptitiously glanced at Blaine, sitting to his right. Blaine was talking animatedly to Wes, his hands gesturing wildly as he attempted to reenact a scene, but all Kurt could hear was a distant murmur. He had never realized what a predicament that could be before now. If he had known he'd be going deaf in his right ear so suddenly, this situation would have felt much less frustrating.

Why, oh why, hadn't he sat on Blaine's right side, or had Blaine sit to the left of him?

He glared down at his food once again; nothing seemed to be working out for him.

Kurt leaned his head to the right, feeling a distinct breath upon his neck and a murmuring in his ear.

"Yes?" Kurt fully turned to face Blaine, hoping it'd be easier to hear him.

"You look mighty angry at those eggs there, aren't they cooked right? I could complain to the chef for you," Blaine offered valiantly, with a smile.

"It's not that," Kurt responded with a crinkle to his nose, "it's just so noisy in here today."

Blaine offered Kurt a brow raise of his own before replying, "Kurt, I don't know what hall you've been sitting in but the noise today has been _less_ so. You heard the Principal's announcement about keeping the volume down in here after one of the cook's complained about not being able to communicate orders. Or were you daydreaming about what'd you'd be wearing today instead of these, 'drabby uniforms' as you'd say?"

Kurt laughed albeit a tad weakly before replying, "Yes, of course, you know how I abhor wearing the same color so much every day."

"I thought it was the way they were tailored to fit?" Blaine asked suspiciously, Kurt was never one to be so forgetful especially in regards to his clothes.

His friend waved his hand dismissively, "Well, it's all the same really, drab clothing, bad fitting, oh look at the time, shouldn't we be heading for class?"

With that, Kurt ran from the room, leaving a plate full of cold eggs and a confused Warbler in his wake.

Rather than run back to apologize for leaving so suddenly, Kurt kept running farther away, it's all he seemed to do these days. He was huffing, and wheezing by the time he entered his dorm room. He grabbed his messenger bag and settled upon is bed for a brief moment, hoping to collect himself.

After five minutes he remembered he was supposed to meet his first classes teacher before class to work on the seating arrangement. He frowned, and rose to gaze into his vanity's mirror. While attempting to fix his hair, a knock sounded from his door.

"Oh crap," Kurt mumbled before opening the door. He released a relieved smile; it was only his roommate coming back for his bag as well.

"You know Blaine is looking for you," David announced, it was just Kurt's luck (or as he'd like to call it, _fate always working against him_) that instead of a new friend, he'd gotten the quirky David as his roommate. It's not that he minded David, he just minded the constant presence of someone near his belongings unattended, it wasn't a sensation he easily came to terms with.

"That's nice, but I suppose he'll find me soon enough, I'm heading to class. Bye!" With that Kurt wiggled a wave, and left, leaving yet another confused Warbler behind. He usually lectured David on what things not to touch of his, despite David's constant reminders that he "had no idea what any of those odd facial creams would do anyway!"

Instead, Kurt set himself moving at a fast pace, hoping to make it into the classroom before anyone else. He was leaning against the room's doorway a few minutes later, only to have his hopes, crushed. Of course Blaine would be early and sitting at his usual place up front. Why did this teacher _have _to have this room's sitting arrangement alphabetically? Because the universe loved to torture one Kurt Hummel. At least that's the way said Hummel was beginning to feel.

He sighed before greeting his English teacher. Mrs. Sparks stood with her back turned to the class, writing on her chalkboard. She was by far one of Kurt's favorite teachers, with her adorable pixie-like height, and wonderful taste in fashion, they were a match made in mentor-student heaven.

"Ah, Mr. Hummel! Come, let's have a chat!" she said grandly, with a wave of her hands towards her desk. Obviously, during his musings, she had heard him enter the classroom. They both stood before her desk where she then opened her seating chart booklet.

"Now, I know we usually have you seated more towards to back, but given your recent condition, most of your teachers have decided to switch you more towards the front. We don't want to negatively affect the observation period, we do plan to make note of any significant hearing issues, but we can't afford for you to miss out on lessons because you can't hear and would rather not say so."

Kurt blushed, hung his head, before mumbling, "I wouldn't do that."

"Mr. Hummel, we here at Dalton have yet to forget the incident in which you didn't accept the offer of many students to carry your books for you when you had a sprained wrist from dancing with the Warblers. You and I both know that if you'd accepted that offer, you wouldn't have needed that extra week with a sling."

Kurt huffed, but instead of trying to argue about an issue they had talked about many a time before this, he instead changed the subject.

"So, where then, am I to be seated?"

"I've decided to place you to the right of Mr. Anderson, the last row, right up front near the board. I thought it best, to sit you near someone you'd feel comfortable to ask if something needed repeating, but still close to the front so if for some reason I don't emote enough, you should still be able to hear me."

"You've really thought this through." Kurt pointed out, astonished at the thoughtfulness of his teacher. Mentor-like or not, he's never had a teacher make him feel so cared for. She's truly making an effort to help Kurt in the situation, and not trying to assuage outside issues.

"I believe you're learning, Mr. Hummel, that given the opportunity, educators care for their students, although I must admit. I have a certain soft spot for the boy who helped me get a discount on some wonderfully stylish footwear."

Kurt was about to reply, but the bell had rung and the whole class had already been seated while Kurt and his teacher were having their conversation. The seat next to Blaine was usually left open, so it was easiest for him to be placed there. Despite being subjected to Blaine's concerned glance, Kurt just smiled, it's not like he minded _that much_ being closer to Blaine.

Perhaps, it wouldn't be as hard as he thought.

If his teachers were this friendly, this helpful, why did anyone else have to know?

He settled into his seat, took out his notebook, and happily focused on his school work. He's becoming quite apt at ignoring the things around him, so the curious glances of the whole room were barely a blip on his mind, especially when Mrs. Spark's offered him a small smile.

Maybe it wouldn't be as hard as he thought.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Sitting in the back of his 6th period history class made Kurt squirm frustrated at his desk. All his other teachers had been more than accommodating, but this teacher had insisted upon Kurt remaining more towards the back, refusing to shift his seating arrangement. While Kurt could understand Mr. McCracklin's annoyance with the issue, it didn't mean he could simply ignore it.

He knew he sounded a tad like a hypocrite, when he himself preferred to ignore the issue at hand, but he was a teenager he chose to take advantage of his hormone deficiencies while he still had them. What excuse did this teacher have? None, in Kurt's opinion, aside from being cruel. The murmurings of Mr. McCracklin's lesson and the other students' whispered conversations finally broke through Kurt's morose thoughts and he came to the realization that the teacher wasn't speaking low at all.

Kurt realized he couldn't hear him.

All this time he had ignored this issue, thinking perhaps the teacher was a soft-spoken person, but instead reality had to rear its ugly head. If Kurt had come forward months ago with his issues to this seating arrangement, perhaps the hearing loss could have been dealt with. It could have been to a lesser degree then. It was as if the results of his doctor's appointment had shattered the illusions he'd set up for himself.

He could lie all he wanted, and blame this teacher for where he sat all he wanted. Yet, neither were the true reason he should be frustrated. It was his hearing, his own ears that were failing him.

Kurt groaned, and set to attempt to fill his blank notebook with a semblance of notes when a shadow fell over his desk.

"A blank notebook means a blank mind, Mr. Hummel. Why have you not been taking notes, hmm?" Mr. McClackin's austere figure set Kurt's hand to tremble. He hadn't thought his obliviousness was that noticeable.

"I-I couldn't hear you sir," he said in response.

"Speak up boy, I don't have all day to strain to hear your whispers. What is the issue?" his teacher demanded menacingly. His ostrich-like stance made Kurt nervous enough for his quivering hand to drop his pen.

It rolled onto the floor with an audible clack. All the other students were focused on the confrontation set before them. Kurt didn't know if he could handle this situation, but he tried none the less.

He cleared his throat before speaking.

"I said, Sir, I couldn't hear you."

"Very well."

The man simply stalked to his desk and opened his notebook, before realizing the whole class was staring at him.

"What are you waiting for you imbeciles? Get to the work I've put on the board, or you'll all be set for detention with me after school!" Mr. McClackin growled out. His voice echoed through the silent room.

Kurt breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, and Mr. Hummel, see me after class."

So much for that moment of hope.

The shrill end of class bell broke the class out of their zombie-like state. The other students ran out of the history class as if there was fire set to their feet. Kurt on the other hand, had no such option of escape. He dragged himself towards the front of the classroom with his messenger bag feeling like it weighed a ton.

"Mr, Hummel, let me ask you a question. Do hearing issues settle in immediately or does the loss occur gradually?"

"I don't know, sir."

"So, do you think my notes to your nurse all those months ago, made much of a difference?"

"_You're _the reason I had to do a more extensive hearing test!"

"It's possible. I may be a little harsh on my students, but I'm also quite observant. Did you never notice how you'd constantly tilt your head to the left to hear better. Now, I didn't think you were going deaf, but I _did _think it was something to look into."

"If so,why won't you move my seat?"

"Why do so when already leaving you there has given you more information on your hearing loss. Sound may resound, and yes, you may be able to catch bits of my lecture, but obviously there are things I would have never been able to see if I'd have coddled you. I'll leave that to the rest of our staff, thank you very much."

"I don't know if I should thank you or continue to be confused, Sir."

"Do what you want Mr. Hummel, this meeting is done. I just wanted to let you know, your father will be hearing of this development. Here's your note for your next class, if they have any issues with your lateness, tell them they'll have to answer to me." Mr. McClackin finished with a devious smirk.

As Kurt left that classroom, he didn't know if he should be happy his teacher didn't harbor a secret hatred for him or concerned for his teacher's obvious continuous observation or him. He mentally shrugged and instead rushed to his next class, hopefully there his teacher would ignore the situation. Coddled, or not coddled by his teachers, the situation was still being handled.

Whereas Kurt would rather they ignore it.

******Important AN:****I'd like to say that for this chapter my beta, is also a co-author, she has been wonderful with dialogue issues.**

**So please, check out more of her own fanfiction here on fanfiction dot net as; "****To Carve Love on Her Arms" and on livejournal as; dreamerofmonday. I'm pretty sure I would've stopped writing this had it not been for her. So please, check out some of her own work and review, this chick has talent up the ying-yang. :) Plus, it's Klaine goodness too!**

**Sorry, lots of notes this chapter. There is a high likely hood the next update won't be for two days because I decided to combine parts to make this part. Sorry! **

**I hope you liked this part though, and please review, your reviews have been awesome :) They've been honest, thoughtful, and make me want to hug the world, lol. *hugs all***


	4. Chapter 4

After an exhausting day at school all Kurt wanted to do was curl up in his bed and act as if the rest of the world didn't exist. Sadly, instead he was sitting at another Warbler meeting quietly attempting his vocal stretches. Doing random, "la la la's" and ridiculous noises were rather easy to do to relax his vocal cord, if only it could relax his rapidly beating heart.

What if he screwed up?

He didn't know if he could handle anything else today.

"All right guys, let's just do a basic run through of Teenage Dream, that seems like a simple warm up, right?" Wes asked the room at large. There were many murmurs of agreement while the rest of the Warblers moved from their seats towards Wes to form a circle. He believed that sometimes the best way to judge how everyone was harmonizing was a circular arrangement.

This set up did nothing for Kurt. Not only was his "good" ear, the left, pointed towards Blaine, but thanks to this arrangement and the way sound resounded in the common room, Kurt had a feeling the voices of the other Warbler's would overwhelm him to the point of hindering his ability to judge his own pitch.

Whether he sang or not, their voices were enhanced within this room, so he'd basically have to fight to hear his own voice.

Once the song was over, Kurt breathed a sigh of relief; perhaps it wasn't quite as difficult as he had anticipated.

"Alright guys that was pretty good. There were a few pitch issues, but I suppose that's expected for the first song after the weekend break. Alright, let's move on to some new choreography. David here suggested we just _had _to try so half of you run off with him and half of you can get your critique now."

Of course Kurt was going to run over to the choreography side of the room, but Blaine grasped his elbow.

"Blaine, can this wait until letter? I'd rather not allow Wes to give me _another_ critique after how he insulted my McQueen scarf."

"Kurt, I hardly think him saying it was more off-white than blue is an insult, but that's beside the point."

"Are you suggesting that Wes insulting my color coordination isn't an important topic?" Kurt squinted suspiciously at Blaine.

"No, no! Nothing of that sort," Blaine laughed nervously as he threw up his hands in a defensive manner, "and stop trying to change the subject!"

"Fine," Kurt sighed, dejected at not being able to distract Blaine.

"Wes knows you're not exactly comfortable with him right now..."

"He annoys me, Blaine," Kurt interrupted flatly.

"Right, seeing how you two can't solve your relationship issues."

Kurt scoffed, before gesturing at his lips as if to zip them closed, as Blaine quirked his brow.

Kurt knew the workings of a brow quirk, and Blaine's triangular lift was not one to be messed with.

"He's sent me over here to share the counsel's critiques and frankly, I'd like to take the moment to talk to you about how you've been acting."

"Excuse me?" Kurt squeaked indignantly, he believed himself to have acted nothing but cordial to Blaine, if not a bit quiet.

"I just mean, you've seemed kind of off since you've gotten back from your weekend at home, and today your pitch was bordering on lost. You kept finding the key harmonies, only to fall back after the next note. What's going on? Did Karofsky do something? Have you and Finn been fighting?"

Kurt eyes fell to the floor as he searched his mind for a logical answer. The only one that fell to the forefront was the _truth_, and he didn't feel ready to share that.

Hell, he was barely ready to face it himself, he still hated it.

He unconsciously raised his hand shakily to stroke his right ear, the "bad" one. Blaine dismissed this odd movement and instead gently stroked Kurt's lax left arm.

"You know you can tell me anything Kurt, and I'll be here to listen," he tried to assure his friend.

"I know, but it's really not all that serious. Can I just, keep it to myself, for now?" _or for as long as I can_, thought Kurt.

"Of course," Blaine replied, relieved, obviously believing that Kurt would tell him soon, "and I understand you're trying to handle whatever it is that's running through your head, but at least try to keep up here in practice okay? We don't want to give Wes another thing to critique other than your color coordination," he finished with a smile.

"Ugh." Kurt glared at Wes across the room. "He has no idea!"

Obviously, Blaine took this as a joke because he chuckled along to Kurt's weary laugh. In reality, Kurt knew that none of them had any idea to what he really meant.

This was proof that he could lose everything if he told them the truth.

Perhaps, ignoring it for a little longer wouldn't be so hard, besides, whether he liked it or not the Warblers would point out his mistakes. That's all he needed for his hearing loss progression notes, right?

What else could they offer?

_Support,_ he quietly whispered to himself, but he immediately ignored that portion of his conscience. It wouldn't do him any good.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

It's finally Friday and all Kurt could think of was going home. He usually spent every other weekend at home, but this weekend he felt like he _needed _to get home. Sadly, he still had one more meeting with the Warblers to get through. Despite the anxiety that continued to weigh in his stomach at every Warbler meeting, he strutted into their common room with all the confidence he could muster.

He sat himself beside Nick in hopes that the usually shy Warbler would put others off from bothering Kurt. Once Wes began his usual spiel on the necessity of their critiques and which song they'd sing today, Kurt felt he was able to at least try to relax. His shoulders slumped and his breathing evened out and tempered less to the side of a possible panic attack and more towards relaxation.

Just as Kurt rose to join in their new number for Regionals, his phone rang, and everyone in the room froze.

This had never happened with Kurt before, all his friends knew when the Warbler meeting was, and they also knew to only call in case of emergencies. Rather than apologize immediately for the interruption, he brought his phone from his pocket to find out who'd be calling.

_Finn._

Usually Kurt wouldn't panic from seeing his brother's name, except Finn never called. Sure, they texted each other every now and then, but he never ever called. The only reason Kurt could think his brother would call was if his Dad had been struck ill again.

With that thought, he answered the phone and ran out of the common room. He didn't think it wise to have the others listen in on his conversation.

"What's wrong with him?", he whispered furtively, he grasped at his chest as he felt his heart beating wildly.

"Who?" Finn's panicked voice replied.

Just as he was about to reply, he heard the Warblers opening harmonies streaming through the open door, and sagged in relief. No one could be eavesdropping if they had to be singing.

"My _Dad,_ Finn, that _is_ why you called, right?"

Silence was all that met his question, and the only reason Finn usually didn't respond to a question was because he didn't know how to. Panic turned to anger as his skin bristled with the realization that Finn hadn't called for his Dad. He clung to the hope that Finn called for a reason, it needed to be a good reason, or he may have just been screwed for his chances for a solo with the Warblers.

He may have just gotten another strike against him for them to allow him to stay in the Warblers.

"Just tell me, is everyone okay?"

"Y-yea, everyone is fine. Seriously dude, what's with all the freaking out?" Finn said worriedly. He didn't seem to realize what he'd done wrong.

"You know I have practice now Finn, do you know what you've done?" Kurt screeched, but pulled himself back. He didn't want the others to listen in, and his screaming could make them _want _to listen in. He did not want to attract the Warblers curiosity.

"I called you?" Finn whispered confusedly.

"Yes genius, you called me during my time with the Warblers."

"Oh yeah, I thought they wouldn't mind, I mean it's kinda of important." The sound of Finn's feet pacing an empty room could be heard in the background.

"I swear Finn Hudson if this is about me helping you make apology cookies again, I will castrate you," the countertenor whispered.

"Um, please don't do that castrate thing, or whatever it's called. Tina threatened Artie with that once, it sounds scary! I mean it's not about those cookies at all, but making those sounds like a great idea maybe you could-"

"Focus! Tell me what's so important that you had to call me at a time you promised not to. The _one_ time you actually call me, and it has got to be the worst time slot ever."

"Sorry dude, I really didn't know," he sounded remorseful to Kurt, but he didn't know if that was enough. If he did get kicked out of the Warblers because of this offense, he was positive he'd attempt to go through with his threat. That, or dye all of Finn's clothing pink.

"It's just… she keeps bugging me about how weird I'm acting. Which is weird since she doesn't even know me that well. Then she tells everyone else I'm acting weird, and now everyone else is bothering me, and don't you think it'd be better? You know what I mean?"

Apparently Kurt had been daydreaming too much on the thought of his many possible devious plans for revenge, and had missed what Finn was talking about.

"I have no idea what you mean." Kurt blithely replied. He was getting tired of this running around, if he was going to make it to the Warblers in enough time to get some practice in and then grovel, this conversation would need to end soon.

"Kurt, I'm telling you we should tell New Directions about your ear thing," Finn whined.

"Oh, well in that case, no."

"But Kurt-"

"No. Listen Finn, it's my ear, it's my hearing issues. You have no right to tell them. So don't you dare! If you share this with them, I swear I'll tell your Mom about your new porn collection."

"That's totally hitting below the belt dude, not cool, you saw what she did to the last one."

Kurt shrugged before leaning against the wall in relief, he could handle this.

"I know, so you should do as I say. Now, I need to get back to my meeting, and hope that you didn't totally screw me up with these guys."

"Well you really shouldn't have left your ringer on, even _I_ know that." Finn chuckled.

"I left it on because I still worry about my Dad, _dude._" Kurt spat.

"I'm sor-" Kurt didn't hear the rest of his apology because he'd ended the call. He was done with Finn's rambling, he had bigger things to worry about.

He really didn't need to stress of this mistake weighing on him as well. He glanced down briefly to squeeze his phone in his pocket again. When he glanced up it was to the sight of Blaine heading towards him determined.

"Listen, Blaine, I'm sorry about interrupting the meeting."

Blaine grimaced and scratched his head before replying, "I suppose that's beside the point, right?"

"Why?" Kurt's brow creased and he began to walk by Blaine, hoping the boy would follow, only to have Blaine throw and arm around his waist and push him towards the wall. He leaned in and whispered into Kurt's right ear.

Obviously Kurt couldn't hear anything, he knew Blaine was whispering something, but all he heard was mumbling. Incoherent mumbling that he couldn't decipher one word from the other.

"What?" Kurt squeaked, embarrassed at having to ask Blaine to repeat himself.

"I said," the lead soloist pushed himself away from the wall, "care to explain why you can't hear me?"

_Oh no._

**AN: It's definitely going to take me two days each to update now because I've decided to combine each chapter I've already written [not the ones you're seeing, the ones I wrote ahead of time] because apparently I can't write more than 1,000 words in a sitting, ugh. *headdesk***

**Also, with this part in particular I had to add some things my beta suggested, but because I decided to rush instead of send it back a third time to be checked, I am a might bit scared. They were, as usual dialogue issues [see I can do angsty introspection well, but give me dialogue and I give you something that has been edited multiple times!]**

**So thank you to "To Carve Love On Her Arms" for being so awesome, and...**

**Review? Seriously, ya'll really do bring more insight to the table and if all you got to say is, "awesome." I am MORE than happy with that too. **

***HUGS***


	5. Chapter 5

With his hands placed firmly upon Blaine's chest, Kurt tried to push him away as hard as he could, but Blaine was much stronger than he looked. His feet seemed to be planted to the ground and though his face was hard to read, his eyes seemed to shine with determination.

"Tell me," Blaine ground out.

"There's nothing to tell. You snooped where you shouldn't have. Now, move!" Kurt grunted in response as he failed once again to move Blaine from blocking his path.

"If you're not going to tell me, then I'll ask Finn."

Kurt huffed before asking, "How do you suppose you'll do that? After you obviously just _eavesdropped _on me making sure he wouldn't say a thing?"

"Like this," and with that Blaine snatched Kurt's phone from his pocket and hit Finn's number on his speed dial.

Although Kurt was a tad taller than Blaine, he wasn't quite as quick as the small soloist. Oh no, Kurt tried and failed many times to grab his phone from Blaine, before it was too late. By the time the dial tone ended, Kurt was huffing from twisting his arms in the many different directions that Blaine managed to allude.

"Hey Finn!" Blaine spoke the words so fast, they were almost unintelligible.

Finn's static-laced greeting echoed along the corridor muffled and distorted before Blaine went straight for what he wanted.

"So, I heard about what happened with Kurt," he said softly.

Kurt leaned in attempting to catch a bit of what his brother was saying, but Blaine turned away and decided in that moment to pace towards the common room.

"Ah, yes, that is rather unfortunate. No, he's fine, I just wanted to see if you had any more information so I could help him."

Once again Kurt scurried forward, but Blaine must have lowered the volume on his phone sometime during their tussle for its possession because he heard nothing.

"Thanks Finn, I'll tell him you said hi, and that you're sorry. I'm positive he won't get in trouble for _this._"

As soon as Blaine ended the call, Kurt snatched his phone away before the elder boy could try to use it for more probing into his issues. He sighed and shoved his phone into his pocket before glaring at his friend.

"Happy now? You got what answer you wanted, I have a condition, and I'm working with it. Can we get back to the meeting now, I feel like we're missing a lot."

Kurt strode forward, but Blaine pulled him back by the waist. He thudded against Blaine with a grunt of shock.

"I get that you're annoyed I didn't tell you, but a simple 'wait up!' was all you needed to say. Do you know how hard it is to get wrinkles out of these blazers?" Kurt fussed with his clothing before Blaine grasped him by the chin.

"Do you really think we're _that_ stupid?"

"What do you mean?" Kurt squinted, his gaze flitting back and forth, scanning the room for a distraction to run from this uncomfortable conversation.

"I mean… Kurt, rather than ask for help, you're ignoring something we can help you with."

"Help?" Kurt bit out, "I don't need help. I just need everyone to leave me alone."

"Really? So why did Finn say your dad was hoping my notes on any changes were good? Explain that to me, Kurt."

"There's nothing to explain, Blaine, you're not my father! I don't have to answer to you." Kurt sharply turned his head, releasing Blaine's hold on his chin. Blaine's arms went lax and Kurt all but ran back to the common room.

"It's not like you cared about the meeting a few minutes ago when you were arguing with Finn! I may not be your father, Kurt, but I thought you considered me a friend, I thought you considered me your best friend!" Blaine yelled to Kurt's back.

Kurt stopped right before the threshold of the common room. He'd never noticed how silent it was until he turned to respond to Blaine.

"You _are_ my friend, one of the best I have, but this isn't something I can just say and be happy about. What do you want from me?" His voice cracked with strain and his eyes were burning again.

He hung his head as he tiredly rubbed at his eyes. He really hated when his eyes burned, because that meant he'd cry soon. He'd gotten so tired of crying.

He heard Blaine's footsteps echo across the hall, and saw his feet stop before him. However, before Blaine could respond, the other Warblers were leaving the common room in a typical rush of blustery testosterone and chaos. Kurt quickly shuttered his eyes, attempting to clear his head. Just as the last of the Warblers walked passed Wes and David stopped in front of Kurt.

"Are you ready to tell us what's going on?" Wes drawled out.

Kurt turned an accusing glare towards Blaine; he _must _have made them think he was a basket case or something.

"Aw, I think it's a lovers' quarrel," David teased with a smile.

"As much as I'd love to entertain a conversation with you boys my dad is expecting me to be home soon. So, I'll see you this coming Monday," he said in faux chipper, as he pushed out the biggest most fake smile he could muster. Whatever it would take to get these boys to drop the subject so he could leave, he'd do it.

"Don't you think they deserve to know?" Blaine pushed one last time.

"No, it's my issue, just drop it, Blaine!"

Kurt was tired of this conversation, tired of these people. He was just plain tired. So instead of attempting to be polite like he had tried mere moments ago, he just turned and walked away. It's not like he hadn't gotten in to the practice of doing so before.

A part of Kurt half-hoped that Blaine would betray his trust and tell Wes and David about his hearing issue. At least then, Kurt could be angry at Blaine with a reason.

For now, he'd scurry home like the scared child he hadn't felt himself stop being since he'd left the doctor's office a week ago.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

One day Kurt would come home and he wouldn't feel the need to take a cat nap immediately, but today was not that day. He dejectedly walked into his home and slammed the door behind him, hoping that he could be alone for a while.

"Hey!" came Finn's far too enthusiastic greeting from the top of the stairwell, but when he walked down a few steps and saw Kurt's face, he immediately trampled down the remaining steps.

"What's wrong?" he asked with a frown.

"Like you don't know," Kurt scoffed and tried to walk by him.

His brother grasped him by the arm, and shook his head. "Come on man, don't be like that. Is it because of that phone call? I said I was sorry!"

"Sometimes sorry isn't enough!" the smaller of the two yelled in his face, but pulled back and scrunched his face in thought. Diva or not, Kurt immediately realized after yelling, that he was taking out his stress on Finn. Usually, he wouldn't do this, but it seems the days events were getting to him more than he thought.

Before he could try and reconcile anything, maybe even apologize for being so abrupt, Finn had already started to drag him towards the kitchen.

"Maybe, I can make it up to you," he suggested hopefully.

Kurt pulled at his hair before dropping into the kitchen chair Finn had pulled out for him. He sat himself at the table and placed his head in his hands.

"It's not you," he mumbled into his hand.

"Then what is it?" Finn's voice seemed to sound rough, as if he were pushing out his words through his teeth. Kurt could see through his hands that Finn's own hands were clenching and unclenching beside him. Did Kurt finally push him enough to make him angry? He sure hoped not. Now, he felt like he wasn't covering his face from frustration, but anticipation. He wasn't sure if he was ready to face an angry Finn after the day he had had.

After a full minute of awkward silence that felt more to Kurt like a half an hour of tension, Finn stalked towards the cabinets and started rattling things around.

"What are you doing?" inquired Kurt, lifting his head from his hands wearily.

"I'm gonna make us some warm milk," Finn crowed enthusiastically, "we can have one of those um… lady chats."

"As tempting as that sounds, Finn," Kurt replied with a sigh, slumping in his chair, "I don't think it's quite that simple. You know that."

"Kurt, I would know, but you've ignored my questions since you walked into the house. Come on, maybe this warm milk will help. Just… don't tell Mom that I touched the stove, 'kay? She still hasn't gotten over the incident," Finn said, rolling his eyes at the word 'incident'. "Honestly," he continued, "your spaghetti accidentally explodes one time and your mom doesn't trust you for the rest of your life."

"Don't forget the time you set your shirt on fire," Kurt added, grinning.

Kurt laughed as he watched Finn fiddle around in search of the crockery with an extra flourish. Kurt felt a familiar tug in his chest, reminiscent of his Finn-obsessed days. He chided himself, but really, with Finn's attitude and smile, what was there not to like?

"So, is this about that thing with Blaine? I mean, if it wasn't my phone call, what happened?" Finn asked, with his back to Kurt as he intently focused on stirring the milk around the pan.

Kurt was then reminded what exactly caused him to stop liking Finn 'like that'. While his brother was sweet, he was also clueless, and often times he didn't exactly think when he spoke. Blaine wasn't a person he wanted to think about right now. If anything, Kurt wanted to push Blaine's presence out of his mind, because as deluded as he'd been in his experience of unreciprocated crushes, he knew that it was completely pointless to think about someone who he knew he would never get.

"Shouldn't you focus more on not possibly setting your shirt on fire_, __again?_" Kurt snapped, feeling slightly guilty as Finn's smile wavered.

"Oh yeah," Finn muttered as he shut off the stove and poured their warm milk into two of their favorite cups. He sat himself across from Kurt as he gently placed their cups down. While Finn gulped down his scorching hot milk from his McKinley football mug, Kurt slowly sipped from his replica of Lady Gaga's favorite tea cup.

Only his family know of its existence (mostly because he's obsessively possessive about certain items, Mercedes still begs to know where he stashed away his tiara collection), so it warmed his heart to see that Finn did care, that his brother noticed silly things like a tea cup that makes him happy.

"So," Finn drawled out awkwardly, "wanna tell me what's up now? I mean, you only have a little while to talk it out before Burt gets home and grills you about school."

Kurt coughed a bit of his warm milk out, and glared at Finn for reminding him.

"It's just a stupid argument Blaine and I had, and I'd rather not think about it. The warm milk is helping though," Kurt said with a brief smile before glancing into his cup forlornly.

"Well, whenever you want to talk, I'm here to listen. Well, except when I'm sleeping, then you know. I'm doing that."

"Yes, I know that much, Finn," Kurt huffed out a laugh.

"Hey see, I'm helping!" Finn exclaimed proudly.

"Helping with what?" they heard Burt call out as the door closed behind him.

Both boys shared a brief look before yelling, "Nothing!" and laughed in unison. It didn't fix a thing, but having someone there to help him relax helped Kurt more than he had thought it could.

****

Kurt moped around the rest of the day and everyone just assumed it was because it started to hail outside. He didn't like muggy weather; it always seemed to mess with his hair. So, he was more than happy to let them think that he avoided going out shopping, not because he felt miserable, but because the weather was miserable.

When he had finally fallen asleep after hours of just relaxing in his room, it was the first night of rest where he fell into bed effortlessly, so what had happened next had shocked him even more.

Kurt groaned awake and glanced at the clock on his nightstand. Four AM? God, this had been happening all week and at the strangest times. He had no idea what to do. His left ear was ringing again. Was he imagining it, or was it real? Usually, once he tried to focus on the ringing, it would stop, but this time it just kept_ going._

It's not like it hurt; it was just so _loud_ and he just wanted it to stop, now. Just as he had that thought, it did. The ringing stopped, and he rolled onto his left side to cushion his ear into his pillow. He briefly thought about telling his dad, but he wasn't sure what this issue meant. He used to hear a ringing sound from his right ear, but it'd happen so sporadically and end so quickly, it never seemed like something to talk about.

He closed his eyes and allowed his worries to fade away. Tomorrow he could handle it, but for now, he'd prefer to keep on dreaming.

****

The sun filtered through his curtains as if beckoning him to wake up. Kurt's eyes flickered open, and he felt more refreshed than he had all week. He stretched, yawning as he scrubbed the last bit of sleep from his eyes, only to have them widen upon realizing that someone was sitting at the end of his bed.

"Good morning," Blaine said, clearing his throat as he seemed to brace himself for Kurt's reaction.

**TBC.**

***shields face* …...I've gotten into this nasty habit of doing cliffhangers. .**

**Sorry for this update being a day late, if that ever happens again and you're wondering what's going on. Info will definitely be posted on my profile about it. :)**

**Again, sorry, I had to edit this one quite a few times till I got it juuuust right. *hugs all***

**Hope you like it! Review? They've been a major help!**

**OH but MOST OF ALL: Big big BIG props to my beta, "To Carve Love on Her Arms", she's the one who made this chapter ten times better than it was. She's like a dialogue guru! :) Please, check out her stuff, because it's just as good [if not better!] thank this. :)**


	6. Chapter 6

_**AUTHORS NOTE: Okay, I know I usually leaves notes to the end, and I do that for a reason, because I feel notes at the beginning take away from the story. However, this time I feel it necessary just to say: Read the whole thing to the end. Trust me :) [So says the very nervous author.]**_

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

_Previous part: "Good morning," Blaine mumbled as he seemed to brace himself for whatever response Kurt would give._

Kurt jumped back and clutched at his quilt, as if it were to protect him; though, from what, he wasn't sure. "What on Earth are you doing here?" Kurt yelped, his eyes comically wide as he voiced his question.

"I think we need to talk."

Kurt simply crinkled his brow as if to say, _'Seriously?'_

"Don't give me that look. You knew you couldn't run from this."

"Not really," Kurt mumbled, burying his head in his blankets as if not seeing Blaine would make him disappear.

"Well either way, it has to be done, so let's talk. I have a bit of a confession to make," Blaine pulled himself farther onto the bed so that he sat Indian style, and Kurt backed up more towards his headboard. He wasn't quite ready to have Blaine so much so in his bed, let alone in his personal space.

Kurt raised his head and offered him a stiff nod, and Blaine took that as prompting to step forward.

"So, most of the Warblers heard a bit of your conversation."

"What?" Kurt shouted, grimacing as it came out louder than he intended it to.

"Shh, your Dad's the one who let me up here. Did you know that your Dad has a _really_ convincing death glare?" Blaine zoned out for a moment before shaking himself slightly. "Please don't yell, I'm pretty sure he'll come up here if you start yelling, and I rather not be on the receiving end of another one of those glares."

Kurt gave him a look of disbelief. "I don't know which I'm more shocked about, the fact that my father showed you his overprotective side, or the fact that the Warblers invaded my privacy!"

"Now hold on a second-"

Kurt interrupted Blaine as he tapped his cheek thoughtfully. "I suppose I should be more annoyed at you Warblers! My father, well he's my dad, so there isn't much I can do there."

"_You Warblers?_ Kurt, no matter what issue you have, you're still one of us!" Blaine responded, miffed at Kurt's wording.

"I know, I know, but it's hard to think about it when soon enough I won't be." His hand was clenching around a bunch of his quilt and Blaine slowly pulled each finger from around the blanket, one by one, until Kurt's hand laid lax upon Blaine's open palm.

"What makes you think, for one second, that we would kick you out of the group?" Blaine asked, frowning slightly.

Kurt began to gently play with Blaine's hand, trying to distract himself, but his friend wouldn't allow him to stay distracted for long.

"Tell me," Blaine prompted.

"I don't know." Kurt snatched his hand out of Blaine's grasp to try and smooth down his forgotten bed head. "Why don't you tell me what they heard?"

"What's it matter? They know something either way."

"It matters because I need to know, can't that be enough? I just need to know how much they think they know." By now, Kurt was so desperate and full of anger that he had pushed aside his quilt and revealed his satin bed attire with no shame. He was more focused on fixing Blaine with a desperate look. He didn't just _want_ to know, he _needed _to know.

"Okay, first off, let me make it clear: we weren't _trying _to listen in on your conversation."

Kurt rolled his eyes; he didn't believe that at all.

"Believe what you will, but it _just so happened_ we were in between vocal exercises and you _just so happened_ to speak up quite a bit. So we didn't catch much just that you had a problem with your ears, but then Wes got mad we were not only invading your privacy but avoiding practice, so we actually started singing. I only left the room after David declared my singing to be so off-key that I needed to go find it… I mean, find _you_. Apparently, your phone call distracted me too much, so I couldn't focus."

"Sorry," Kurt mumbled, reaching for his quilt so he could rebury his head in it and pretend Blaine ceased to exist.

"It's okay, if it weren't for how distracting your presence is, I would have never been able to find the answer to what's been wrong with you this week. You worry me, Kurt."

"Sorry," Kurt mumbled with a shrug in response, what could he say to that? That he was fine? They both knew he wasn't.

"Is that all you can say?" Blaine said, with a pleading tone to his voice, as his eyes searched Kurt's for some kind of answer that seemed to elude him.

"What do you want me to say?"

"It's not what I want you to say, it's what I hope you'll say. Tell me when we can tell the Warblers."

"We can't," Kurt pleaded. "Please, Blaine, they can't know."

"Why not? Why can't you face this issue head-on, and see that you're not alone?" It came out bitten, and they both winced at how harsh it seemed. Blaine leaned forward almost all the way and reached out to pull Kurt towards him, but Kurt practically glued himself to the headboard.

"I know I'm not alone, Blaine, but no matter how much support you say I can have, it doesn't make up for the fact that this can't be fixed."

"I'm not a miracle worker, nor am I a doctor, but I do know that the Warblers and I care about you."

"I doubt it. They'd understand, but not to the extent you're making it seem. They're all _great_ guys, but I don't think even they would be willing to deal with my baggage."

"Let me prove to you that they can, just as much as I can. Tell them." Blaine looked honestly frustrated now, as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"I can't," Kurt said, frustrated, as he closed his eyes to ward off his tears, now was not a good time for those.

"Why not? What's so wrong with telling your friends about your problems?"

"What's wrong is as much as they're my friends, they're also a competitive choir group and my 'problems' could severely hinder them in competition!" Kurt yelled in response, and turned away to try and calm himself. His face was beet red, and his shoulders shuddered as he attempted to take in deep, calming breaths. He felt as if the room was trying to suffocate him and he had no hope.

Blaine eyes shifted towards the open doorway again, before he sagged with relief when Burt's footsteps couldn't be heard going up the stairs.

Blaine knelt forward and grasped at Kurt's hand before he could turn away from Blaine even more. "Don't worry so much," Blaine said. "I'll always be here for you. If for some _crazy_ reason, they were to kick you out, I'd quit the second they'd say it."

"You'd do that for me?" Kurt asked, doubt creeping into his voice. He hated how tiny and desperate his voice sounded, but he couldn't help it.

"Kurt, I'd do anything for you." Blaine said softly. "Hey, look at me." He prodded Kurt gently until he looked up, and Blaine smiled, his gaze reassuring and comforting. "I care, alright?"

Before Kurt could reply, his father's voice boomed from the downstairs kitchen that breakfast was ready. Blaine awkwardly shuffled himself off Kurt's bed. "I guess I'll see you downstairs for breakfast."

"I guess," Kurt said with a small smile.

Maybe sharing his issues with a few friends wouldn't be as painful as he thought.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Kurt walked into the kitchen with an air of confidence as he strutted in his skin tight jeans, and plain white t-shirt, deciding to keep it simple. He didn't know what he expected but what he didn't expect to see was Blaine nervously fiddling with his vest's buttons as his father's eyes bored into the poor boy!

"So, you thinking of dating my son?" Burt asked with his brows raised. He seemed impatient and his foot was tapping incessantly under the table.

"Um well…" Blaine licked his lips nervously and audibly gulped. Thankfully, Carole stepped in as she placed Blaine's pancakes in front of him and patted Burt on the head.

"I don't think you need to do all that dear, I'm sure Kurt can handle himself and Blaine seems like a nice young man," Carole smiled at Kurt as he entered the kitchen, and she went back to the stove.

"Dude!" said Finn astonished, "why'd you get the first pancakes?"

Blaine just offered him a confused stare before deciding to not reply, and enjoy his breakfast. Finn's mother on the other hand, had no such qualms.

"Because he's a guest, Finn," Carole chided with a laugh, as she placed another plate of pancakes in front of Finn this time. "Here, you happy?"

"Yup!" Finn replied energetically, digging into his pancakes with much fervor.

"If you eat us out of a home, I will go forward with dying all your clothes pink," Kurt injected with a serious look.

Finn's mouth fell open in shock, baring his half-chewed breakfast to the world. "Even my underwear?"

"Ew, Finn, we don't have to see your breakfast!" Kurt said, scrunching up his nose. Turning to Blaine, he said, "I'm sorry about him, Blaine. His mother supports me in the thought that he was dropped on his head one too many times as a child."

Finn tried to pipe up in his defense, but it was muffled by his need to gorge on as many pancakes as possible. By the time Burt and Carole were served it seemed like everything was smooth sailing in regards to breakfast.

"So Kurt," Blaine broke the silence, "what do you think about us going to the mall?"

"Well, I was going to ask Mercedes if she'd like to go out with me again, but I suppose I can fit you in instead – gotta give my girl a break from me every now and then." Kurt laughed before digging into his pancakes.

"Excellent." Blaine replied excitedly.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Blaine, who insisted on driving, parked Kurt's baby as far from other cars as possible, despite Kurt's glare when he noticed him doing so, so they ended up in a lot quite a while away from the mall. Kurt hopped out of the car excitedly and stopped at his fender to adjust his heeled boots for the hike to the mall. He was bent over when he head Blaine move to stand beside him, but before he could turn to Blaine, the roar of multiple cars pulling into the parking spaces next to his Navigator distracted him. He sprung up, but their abrupt arrival didn't jar him half as much as seeing who were in those cars.

All the Warblers save Wes were walking straight towards him, which set Kurt on edge even more. Any time before a competition, Wes would stalk most of the Warblers to make sure they stuck to his regiment of vocal exercises and rest (and they rarely did, thus why Wes had a carrying case for his gavel).

"What the hell?" Kurt exclaimed. He had thought that this would be a Kurt-and-Blaine-thing not a Warbler thing. Oh God, if it was another Gap Attack, he would happily storm off. May it never be said that Kurt couldn't pull off a runway walk because thanks to multiple practice sessions in front of his mirror, he could execute a perfect runway strut if he was ever to walk away from them.

"I thought you'd appreciate being able to tell the Warblers sooner rather than later. Sorry Wes isn't here," Blaine said, shaking his head slightly as if Wes not being there was the only problem.

Kurt sputtered for a few moments. He couldn't even grasp at the multitude of words in his head, but not for the lack of trying. He found himself asking, faintly, "Why isn't Wes here?"

"He err… he didn't think that this was a wise decision," Blaine replied awkwardly. He seemed to be growing concerned and he watched Kurt warily, trying to gauge his reaction.

"For once, Wes and I agree on something and it's _this_ situation of all things!" Kurt threw out his hand and gestured to the boys gathered around him in a semicircle.

"Kurt, come on," Blaine pleaded, reaching for Kurt's elbow. "Just give us a chance to explain."

"Don't touch me!" Kurt said, automatically, wrenching his arm from Blaine's grip. "I can't believe you, Blaine Anderson! You come to my house to try and make things right with me, and you think _this _helps?"

"We just really want to help, Kurt." David interrupted calmly, with a look of determination upon his face.

"Look, I appreciate your concern, but I need to sort this out with myself before I sort this out with everyone else. I'll ask for your help if I want it."

"I don't understand," Blaine said, scrunching his eyes and shaking his head.

"You know, this is why I delayed telling all of you about this. I get it, you guys are trying to help, but honestly you guys are making this so much of a mess. You want the truth? Fine, I'm afraid of being kicked out from The Warblers, I'm afraid of how I'm going to feel around everyone. Please don't judge me. I think I just need some time to myself."

"But Kurt…" Blaine started, but faltered, his mouth moving soundlessly.

"But-nothing," Kurt said softly, "if you really care for me, like you said you do – like I _know_ you do, then you'll give me this weekend to just… be alone for a little while." He shrugged, kicking at the ground awkwardly.

"I'm sorry" Blaine said, his voice seemed rough and scratchy, and while Kurt cared that Blaine was as upset as he was and wanted nothing more than to pull this boy into his arms, he also knew now wasn't the time.

Kurt sighed. He wasn't sad, he was disappointed, confused, and honestly, a little peeved. "Thanks for caring, you guys, but right now, it's that you didn't trust me to tell you. Maybe on Monday we can talk it out, and really get to the bottom of things, but for now, I need to go."

With that, Kurt turned and walked in the opposite direction, away from the parking lot and closer to Nordstrom. He didn't know if he was going into the large store to hide better from the Warblers, or to distract himself with shopping to hide from himself.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"And that's when I decided to get some shopping done, and try not to focus on it too much," Kurt wiped his hands on his towel and helped his dad close the hood of their second to last car.

"So, what do you need to know? I mean, I get what happened, and I now understand why you locked yourself in your room for the rest of the day yesterday, but you said you had a question for me," Burt said, confused, as he took his baseball cap off and rubbed his head with his dirty hand.

"Dad," Kurt chided as he handed his dad his towel. "You should use a towel."

Burt wiped his hands on his pants instead and opened the hood of their last car. "Got a lot to do on this one, so I have plenty of time for you to avoid asking whatever question you're avoiding asking, and then decide to ask anyway."

Kurt sighed as he leaned back against the front of the customer's car, next to where his dad was bent reaching deep in to check the fluid levels.

"I just…" Kurt cupped his chin in his left palm, "I just need to know if there's really any way to fix this. I mean, he was so _pushy _and I don't know if I want that in my life."

Burt snorted.

"What?" Kurt demanded, standing up straighter.

"Kiddo, I hate to break it to ya, but you're about as pushy as they come, and it's for far less serious things."

"So you're saying I should be able to move on from this?"

"What I'm saying is, Blaine isn't perfect, and neither are you. The kid might be smooth, but that doesn't mean I can't see how he thinks."

"What do you mean?"

Burt straightened up and grabbed a wrench from his tool kit nearby, before turning to Kurt.

"Look, Kurt, all I'm saying is, kids are stupid, and Blaine may be stupid in love, because he sure as hell didn't know what he was doing when he came to the door, and nearly knocked me over in his desperation to see you when I answered the door. He cares about you, Kurt, that's the most important thing. The kid's got his heart in the right place, and if he screws up a little on the way, well, sometimes people need a little push in the right direction."

Burt tightened the piece that needed to be tightened and handed the wrench to Kurt to clean.

"Why are you defending him all of a sudden?" Kurt asked, and when Burt raised a calm eyebrow, he said, "Like when you acted so weirdly to him at breakfast, _asking about his grades_! Oh, and don't get me started on how you apparently stared him down when he came to the door!" Kurt laughed a bit as he recalled Blaine's face when all of the above mentioned occurred.

"I'm not defending him, Kurt. I'm just answering your question as best as I can. Sometimes the answers we get ain't the ones we want, but we gotta live with them."

"I suppose I understand," Kurt sighed. His Dad really _was _making sense but he just really didn't like what he was hearing. He wanted to hear his father say that Kurt was right and Blaine was wrong – wasn't that what parents were for?

"That still doesn't explain why you were so strange to Blaine," Kurt pointed out, as his father walked away to get the car jack so they could change the car's damaged wheel.

Burt lowered the jack and adjusted it under the wheel before facing Kurt again. "Well, he did knock on the door much earlier than a person should."

"9 am isn't too early!" Kurt protested half-heartedly as he picked at his overalls.

"It is on a Saturday morning," Burt replied easily. "Now let me finish. I just gotta make sure that no little boy is going be touching my baby boy inappropriately."

"Dad!" Kurt screeched in shock. "What about that talk we had?"

Kurt's eyes twitched as he recalled the mostly traumatizing, but somehow still heartwarming "talk" his father had given him.

"If you recall, I said I'd prefer you wait until you were thirty for that. Besides, I'll always try to put the fear of God into your lesser halves, because I gotta make sure they're good enough for my boy," Burt said. He was about to start pumping up the car when Kurt gently pulled his Dad into a hug, and away from his work.

"Thanks Dad," he mumbled, muffled by his father's neck. Burt didn't say anything at first – he simply stood straight and patted his boy on the back.

"Thank goodness you're wearing these overalls, I got a bit of oil on them," Burt said, gruffly, when they pulled apart, and he laughed as he watched his son behave like a puppy chasing his tail as he searched for the oil stain.

Kurt didn't need his dad to be polite, polished, or any other thing other than love him. His father could be as overprotective, and as unhealthy of an eater as he could ever imagine. Despite all those things, no actually, _because of_ all those things and more, Kurt loved and admired his Dad.

He also realized that his Dad had a point. Blaine cared about Kurt, and maybe his decisions weren't as wise as they should be, but the most important thing was that Blaine _cared._

He may have some things to talk about with Blaine come Monday morning.

**TBC.**

**Notes: I feel like I've run a marathon, this is the longest chapter I've written so far, and I am so nervous. I hope you liked it and please review to express your thoughts!**

**I usually like playing coy, but I do want to say that the next part the Warblers and Kurt ****will**** talk everything out. Also, let's not forget, this is not the end. We still have New Directions to deal with AND the Doctor's appointment where Kurt will get another hearing test and his doctor will tell him whether he's lost some hearing or not, by the way...what could be going on with his right ear?**

**Oh my! So I hope you haven't left me yet, because this chapter has me feeling quite twitchy and nervous to see what ya'll think.**

**Oh, sorry I know this is a long note!**

**MOST OF ALL: Thanks as always go to my beta, "To Carve Love on Her Arms" aka Dreamerofmonday. She's truly been awesome with tweeking these scenes and has no qualms telling me when a characters seems too off! So, thanks goes to her and for all you klainers out there [who isn't? Haha.] she's started to hint at wanting a kiss. Oh my! Who knows when that'll come in!**

***hugs all* **


	7. Chapter 7

Kurt gripped the strap of his messenger bag tightly, fingernails digging into his palm as he slowly made his way towards the Commons where the Warblers' meeting was being held. This particular Monday had been the slowest by far of any in his life.

Although, initially, he had wanted to work things out with Blaine, he'd realized that perhaps the other boy needed to think about what he'd done a little more – so they still had yet to talk. If anything, Kurt was worried that the not talking would hurt their friendship – they'd never fought like this before.

Blaine aside, he'd given the cold shoulder to all the other Warblers, even Wes, as well. Despite Wes' objections to Blaine's decision, which Kurt was inherently grateful for; Kurt really didn't feel like talking to Wes. In reality, their friendship went from one high to another low – personalities such as his and the gavel-loving council member didn't tend to mix well. That boy was a diva in his own special way, and Kurt could not deal with him at the moment.

So instead, he tried his best to ignore the look of pure misery upon Blaine's stricken face. At the very least, he had had the fortune to be able to avoid Blaine as much as possible today – he barely saw Blaine aside from class; but David? For a guy who knew when to deliver a sarcasm-drenched one-liner, Kurt did _not _expect to catch David's eye during lunch, the latter casting a hopeful gaze between Kurt and the clock, before asking, straight-out, "Are you coming to our meeting?"

By the time Kurt looked up from his English assignment to answer him, David was gone. Kurt sighed and glanced at his assignment wearily. He hadn't meant to take so long at responding. He wanted the Warblers to learn a lesson, but he didn't want to hurt their feelings.

Therefore, he was stuck here right now, in between the messy "I'm still mad at you" and "I'd like to pretend this never happened," heading to this meeting and hoping that this one time, lateness could be excused.

He sped up his steps with that thought in mind; the clock was ticking and if he was late enough, they could think he'd decided to not go. By the time he reached the open entrance and heard the gentle murmur of conversation, he decided to catch his breath and compose himself before heading in.

It's not that he was planning to eavesdrop, but it just happened that way because the next thing he knew, he heard Blaine's voice. He didn't realize how much he'd missed it until Blaine spoke, his voice rising above the chatter.

"Warblers, Warblers!" Blaine called out, as the council and his fellow Warblers chattered in general confusion, wondering aloud why Blaine had asked them to stay a few minutes longer.

After they'd all settled down and Blaine stood before the council and the others, he spoke.

"So _maybe _my plan wasn't a great idea since Kurt's not here." He seemed to pause and clear his throat, probably from nervousness, thought Kurt.

"Your plans aren't usually that great, but yeah, this one was a pretty stupid idea," agreed Wes, who sounded quite smug.

"Thanks Wes, I really needed to hear that," Blaine replied, with a quick roll of his eyes. "As I was saying, Kurt's obviously angry because of the whole mall debacle."

"Try furious!" interrupted David. "I mean, the guy usually talks for hours on end on whatever subject he chooses, don't you think it's saying something that he's ignoring us?"

"Well yes I do, but if you'll allow me to continue," Blaine attempted to do so, but unfortunately, Thad cut in.

"We'll see that we shouldn't apply anymore of your plans? Need I mention "Gap Attack", anyone?" Thad asked the group at large.

Just when Kurt thought he'd need to step in from this group of blame they were trying to place on Blaine, Jeff spoke up but kept his voice soft and firm.

"I don't think we should place all the blame on Blaine. I mean, it's not like he took our choice away to go with him, or from telling Kurt about it in advance."

"Thanks Jeff," Blaine said, smiling gratefully at the taller Warbler. "As I was saying," Blaine paused for a moment, probably waiting to see if anyone would interrupt again, "I wanted to know if you guys had any ideas about how to make things right Kurt?"

"Other than, oh I don't know, apologizing?" Wes suggested, sarcastically.

"You know, you don't have to lap up the fact that you were right, for so long." Blaine sounded hurt and Kurt choked back a snort.

"I'll try to tone my sarcasm," Wes replied apologetically, seriously, before suggesting, "Why not sing to him?"

"I thought of that, but then I realized it's something we do all the time, and while that'd be nice for some other occasion I don't think just doing that could really make up for it. That's why I want all of you guys' input, out of the group of us _someone _has to be able to think of something good, right?"

As the room at large seemed to nod in agreement, or call out there mildly enthusiastic "_yeah!_" Blaine muttered to himself, "I sure hope so."

Blaine sat himself back down and a few minutes of silence seemed to pass, Kurt assumed everyone to be lost in thought. He even considered making his presence known. Just as he took a deep breath and steeled himself to walk through the doors, David spoke up.

"How about you kiss him?" suggested David.

"What?" squeaked Blaine.

David grunted as someone socked him in the arm. Wes intervened, "I _think_ what he meant to say was, Kurt seems to care about his friends so maybe we can go to the guys at New Directions and see if they want to collaborate with us – I'm sure they'd have more ideas to add to the mix, too."

"Flirting with the enemy?" gasped David. "I like my original idea_much_better."

Just as Kurt turned into the doorway to enter the room, he saw David grin impishly, indicating that his earlier suggestion had been nothing but a joke. Kurt groaned inwardly as his heartbeat pounded in his ears, obviously overexcited over the suggestion of Blaine kissing Kurt as an apology.

"As much as I appreciate the thought, you guys, I don't think you need to bring New Directions into this." Kurt said, and the room seemed to still all at once. Blaine turned around to face him with a horrified look upon his face.

"I swear I was going to tell them not to tell your friends, Kurt, I _promise!__"  
_

Kurt didn't quite know what to say, so he remained silent and simply stepped towards Blaine, feeling thankful that he was the taller of the two, and pulled the boy into a hug.

He whispered into Blaine's ear, "Thank you. It's okay, I mean, I can't hold a grudge forever, right?" He pulled away and held Blaine at an arm's length, "Just try and talk to me first next time, okay? We both know your schemes turn out as well as Rachel Berry's wardrobe," Kurt curled his lip at the mental image. "Not entirely well at all."

They both laughed at this before Kurt felt himself being pulled back towards Blaine. Blaine seemed to squeeze Kurt extra hard around the waist. "These past two days were _horrible__."  
_

Kurt bit his lip to smother his sigh. "Yeah," he said, burying his head in the crook of Blaine's neck for a split second. "Mine too."

"Maybe next time we should _both_ talk this out?"Blaine said.

Kurt pulled away from Blaine to grimace, but it slowly morphed into a little smile.

"I don't suppose you would let me wallow in my pit of sorrow, avoid discussing this matter entirely and pretend it never happened, would you?"

"Nope. Sorry Kurt, but now that we both admitted that we should have handled communication a little better, do you think we now have a clean slate?"

"A completely clean slate," Kurt assured him.

"You think they'll kiss _now_?" David whispered to Wes, but of course since the room was completely silent due to everyone being entranced by the moment between their lead and newest member, _everybody _had heard him.

Kurt didn't know whether to glare or blush, so he ended up doing a little of both as Blaine pulled him by the hand to sit beside him in their usual seat on the couch nearest the council. Kurt settled into his seat and Blaine wrapped a loose arm around his shoulder.

"So, why can't we ask New Directions for help? It's not that we want to spy," Thad rushed to assure them, "but I believe I speak for everyone when I say this – we all still want to do something for you to show we really care."

"I could ask all of you to help replenish my constantly growing wardrobe." Kurt smiled at the thought of so many wallets to burn holes into, until he noticed all the guys were rapidly pulling out their wallets, as if they were already ready to kiss them goodbye.

"I was kidding, guys!" Kurt announced, shocked at their immediate agreement. All this time, it was_that _easy to get boys to take him on a shopping spree?

He noted this down mentally for future reference.

"Thank God." Wes wiped at his brow, relieved. "I took my girl out shopping last weekend and I'm pretty sure my parents are going to go crazy when they see the bill."

"That aside," Thad said, "you basically avoided my question. I'm not trying to get in your business like before, but if you don't want us to go to your friends for help, and from what Blaine says it seems like we're the first to know out of your friends. Mind you, we don't really know _anything__."  
_

"Well?" Blaine asked nervously, he didn't seem like he was trying to pressure Kurt, but it was obvious which way he hoped Kurt would go.

"I guess old habits just die hard, really. I'm willing to try and open up to you guys."

"Thanks," Thad responded and Kurt turned to see the other Warblers nod in agreement.

He exhaled shakily; technically, this was the first time he was sharing this information with someone else. He wasn't being told this information – he was the one telling others.

Blaine reached forward and held Kurt's hand in a lax, but comforting hold. "Whenever you're ready."

Kurt was grateful for the warm, if slightly clammy, touch. "I'm going deaf, or I could be." Kurt's soft voice drifted across the room.

"Well, that is quite an issue..." Wes began.

"But it's not like this hasn't happened before," finished David.

"I mean, we're glad it isn't something more serious, but at least a few of us know how to help you." Thad added.

"What do you mean?" Kurt looked at Blaine, but he just shrugged in response, he seemed to be just as lost as Kurt in this moment.

"While it isn't common, it's not completely rare either. The year before Blaine transferred in, our lead had unilateral hearing loss. Mind you, he had developed the loss in grade school, but none the less he still had to work with it. If anything, I learned a lot from him about pitch control and other vocal techniques." Wes replied, calmly as if giving a short lecture.

Kurt didn't know what to say to that, other than, "That's great! So that means I'm still in, right?"

"If you mean the Warblers, then, Kurt, you were never considered 'out'," Wes stated with a frown, as if he couldn't believe Kurt had thought otherwise.

"You're the first countertenor we've had in a century! Why would we ever let you go?" Wes added, and suddenly the world shifted back into place for Kurt, now it all seemed normal again.

"I don't think that's the only reason you wanted to keep him here," David said with a smile.

Wes huffed but smiled at Kurt. "Fine, I kind of like him."

Kurt smiled, stood, and adjusted his blazer before turning to address the room at large. "Thank you all for your support, but really, the only thing you could do to say you're sorry for butting in is doing as I ask and act as if nothing is wrong."

Blaine stiffened where he sat and Kurt turned to him. He knew what Blaine was thinking, so he said, "_Yes_, I also need you guys to be totally honest with me if you think my singing is off, or anything of that like. Yet, I also need you to see me as a person first, and a person with a disability second. It's not all there is to me, as you know, so I'd prefer you to try not to focus on this unseen issue I have."

After what he'd said he'd expected them to squawk indignantly, but instead all he saw were nods of acquiesce and proud smiles.

"I think you can leave most of the need to take notes on your singing to us. We do tend to critique you guys more anyway," Thad said gesturing towards himself and his fellow council members.

Kurt happily sat himself besides Blaine, and asked, "So I can just jump right back into the swing of things?"

"Not quite yet." Wes shook his head and pushed his chair out.

"There isn't much you can do today." David pulled his blazer from the back of his chair as he stood.

"Why not?" Kurt was really happy to finally be able to try and sing at practice without feeling like there was a weight of his hearing problem on his chest, so he didn't get why the meeting was suddenly over without any singing.

Instead of having David respond, Blaine said, as he was brushing imaginary lint from his pants, "The meeting was done a few minutes before you came in, I brought up my idea right before everyone was going to run out of here."

Kurt's mouth formed a silent 'O' as everyone else filed out, leaving Blaine and Kurt behind.

They both left the commons, but before Kurt could return to his dorm, Blaine had tapped him on the shoulder. Kurt turned to face him.

"Have time for coffee?" Blaine asked. Whether he realized it or not, he looked rather nervous about the possibility that Kurt would turn him down.

"With you? Always." Kurt smiled as he immediately stepped beside Blaine and they began the trek to the outside of school.

**TBC.**

**I was going to wait to post this, so I could put it online the same time as I did LJ [ugh posting there with google chrome takes getting used too. *sigh*] But, I really couldn't wait to share this! Review please! I'd love to know what you think! :D *hugs*  
****  
****OH ALSO. guess who drafted a kissing scene? Oh yeea. :)**

**Big thanks to ze beta "To Carve Love on Her Arms" [here on ffdotnet], she has been spectacular as usual!**

_Disclaimer [because I really should do them, yes?]: I don't own anything affilated with GLEE, or GLEE itself. I just like to bedazzle the show with snazzy stories. ^.^_


	8. Chapter 8

Kurt pulled his Navigator in beside Blaine's sleek Infiniti M56. He had to stay after school with Mrs. Sparks. She asked him to help organize their Shakespearian Experience trip. Gucci only knew why this woman thought he knew anything about Shakespeare, but as she put it, 'You're damn good at finding discounts.'

By the time he was heading into their coffee spot, he was feeling pretty warm inside, despite how cool the weather was.

He looked down at his pricey, and yet somehow affordable attire, and smiled proudly before sitting across from Blaine and crossing his legs. His smile quickly morphed into a frown when he noticed his friend staring out the window where their cars were parked. Blaine didn't look happy, and a sad Blaine was never one Kurt wanted to see.

A lazy Friday afternoon at their coffee shop should have made him brim with excitement, but when one's friend has been acting a little off, it drives a person to distraction.

Kurt sipped at his coffee, which had been paid for by Blaine, before placing it down and picking up his biscotti, only to point it at Blaine hoping to draw his attention. "Alright, you've been far too agreeable these past few days, what's going on in that head of yours?"

Blaine turned and blinked at the biscotti pointed at his nose in confusion. "Nothing is going on. Can't a boy agree with his friend often and not cause suspicion?"

"I'd believe that if it weren't for the fact that you even agreed Lady Gaga to be better than Katy Perry. Either you were day dreaming, or you've suddenly lost your love for Ms. Perry."

Blaine scoffed and looked at the contents of his cup before gazing into Kurt's eyes. "It's just, I don't want to seem like I'm in your business all the time, but I can't help but worry." He bit his lip as Kurt's eyes shuddered.

"Is that all this is about, you're _worried_ about me?" He extricated Blaine's left hand off the side of his coffee cup, and held it, rubbing his thumb gently over Blaine's knuckles. He hoped that, in some small way, this seemed like a comforting gesture.

"I suppose it's more, I'm worried you think it's over."

"What do you mean?" Kurt's brow creased in confusion.

"Well, after the talk with the Warblers we've essentially forgotten about your issue, which is all fine and dandy. I'm glad that you're fine. Except, I don't believe that you really are."

"I think I just opened up a can of worms." Kurt tried to take his hand off Blaine's to grasp his coffee cup, but the other boy was holding on to Kurt's hand now, with a warm clutch.

"Somewhat," Blaine said. "I was going to bring it up anyway," Blaine trailed off and rubbed at his slightly scruffy jaw nervously, "have you thought about telling your other friends at all?"

"No." Kurt brought his other hand forward to grasp their hands together. "Why think about something that's so far away? I mean, this week has been pretty great, we could win nationals with the way practice has been!"

"Yea, we could." Blaine offered a lopsided smiled as he patted Kurt's hand. "But I don't know if you'll make it there with how much stress you're putting on yourself every time Finn asks if he can tell your friends. I can see that it bothers you, and that once again, you'd rather not face it. Perhaps sharing with Finn wasn't the best idea, but he's your family, and he probably knows what he's talking about when he says your friends could help."

"Help? With what?" Kurt huffed." No offense to New Directions, but the Warblers are the only ones who I really needed anything from, what can New Directions add other than knowing they may have the upper hand in Nationals?"

"Let's be realistic here. Your friends can help more than you think, and if anything it'll be easier on you to not have your brother calling every few hours because Rachel is Facebook-stalking him with messages or because Mercedes is annoyed that you barely call her now!"

"Speaking of my friends…" Kurt released Blaine's hand and instead pulled his phone out of his trench coat pocket. "I just got a text from Rachel, give me a minute to read and reply."

"You're not going to be able to avoid this forever," Blaine pointed out, sipping at his coffee, but grimaced at the taste, it was cold by now.

"I know." Kurt rolled his eyes, exasperated at his friend, and instead turned his attention to his phone to focus on _yet_ another message. It was from Rachel this time, and he seethed. The last time he'd received a text from Rachel, it had been the night she'd gone out with Blaine, and she had asked him if he could come over and help her clean up the mess.

_To Kurt: Meet me at the mall or your precious gets it_

_From Kurt: The hell are you going on about now?_

_To Kurt: You saw what I wrote and I mean it._

Kurt received a picture message not five minutes later of a smiling Rachel in front of their mall's GAP store. At that moment he swore to himself if one Miss Berry ever asked for his advice again, he'll twist his words to form into a pretzel of sugarcoated bullshit that'd surely get her back for this atrocity.

_From Kurt: I swear to Gaga, Berry, if you even look at my Cheerios uniform wrong, I will know, and I will ruin every piece of Streisand memorabilia you own. Yes...even the classic lunchbox!_

He hurriedly stood up and muttered, "That crazy little…" he trailed off, unable to describe the madness that was Rachel Berry. "I'm sorry, Blaine, but I have to go."

"But wait, we're not done talking!" Blaine called to Kurt's retreating back.

Kurt turned around as he opened the door and yelled out, "This is more important, call you later!"

As he stepped into his Navigator, parked conveniently in front of the window where Blaine was sitting, he noticed Blaine sitting hunched over the table staring despondently into his coffee cup.

_To Blaine: It's really important, I promise I'll explain later, look up?_

Thankfully, a few seconds later, Blaine looked up to stare straight at Kurt. Kurt blew a quick kiss at him and waved.

_To Blaine: Still friends?_

_To Kurt: Always. :)_

Kurt pulled out too quickly to see Blaine's facial reaction, but his response text was enough to help him relax and prepare to meet up with Rachel. Who he was still fuming at, thank you very much. How _dare_ she?

Thirty minutes later a distressed Kurt cringed as he stepped into the GAP. He loathed this store even more after the "Gap Attack" incident.

"Hey," he heard the soft greeting behind him and pirouetted to fix Rachel with the fiercest glare he could muster.

"Hand it over," he demanded with his hand outstretched and an impatient tapping of his heels.

"Not so fast." She wiggled her finger in his face. "You didn't think I'd have you come here just to hand your Cheerios uniform over, did you? Oh no, you have to answer some questions first."

"Fine, but not here." He sneered at a rack of sweaters beside him. "I could develop hives if I'm in this store for much longer."

Rachel huffed, "I don't know why, I peruse their shelves quite often, they have an amazing collection of sweaters!"

"Exactly," Kurt replied and strutted out the store.

"Wait, _I'm_ the one who should be leading the way today, not you!" She hurried to catch up with him.

"Sure." He waited for Rachel before heading straight for the escalator to the second floor.

"Where to now, my queen?" he sarcastically replied.

"That's more like it!" she said, excitedly, evidently not registering his sarcasm as she hopped on to the escalator and pulled Kurt with her.

"Maybe we can take a moment before I bring you to a store I actually did plan to shop in."

Kurt groaned, "Just give me what I came here for, I'm sure where ever _you_ shop, I'd never want to go into."

"We'll see." She hopped off the escalator and continued to pull Kurt alongside her.

"So," she seemed to hesitate for a moment before saying, "tell me why Finn has been acting so distant lately."

"Seriously, you stole my uniform for _this_? How should I know? Besides, he's probably just distant because it's you, Rachel."

"I doubt that, but you know, Kurt, if he's behaving like this because of my birthday then really, I urge you to feel no remorse for spilling whatever secrets Finn has brewing in his brain. Just _tell me_," she begged as she shook his arm.

He was just about to ask, 'Are you really _that _self centered?" but then he realized with a huff, _it's Rachel Berry, of course she is!_

"Listen Rachel, I'm positive whatever is going on with Finn has _nothing _to do with you. You asked me to meet you here so you could give me back my Cheerios uniform! How you got it in the first place, is beyond me, but I want it back now," he growled menacingly.

"Alright, alright. Jeez Kurt, you need to relax." She pulled it out of her bag and Kurt groaned at all the creases. It would take so much time to have it laundered, when it was perfectly fine in his closet just days ago!

"You know Rachel, sometimes I really just can't believe you at all. Seriously, tell me, how did you get this out of my room? Who let you into the house?"

"Finn."

"He did what? How'd you get him to do that? I thought you two were still working out your '_issues'_."

"Um, we are." Rachel leaned her back against the railing of the second floor.

Kurt started to lean as well, before he stood straight as a thought struck him, so he turned to face Rachel and stated, "You blackmailed him, didn't you."

"Kind of."

"There's no in-between with blackmail, either you did or you didn't."

"Well, I made him think I had some rather racy pictures of him from when we were dating and I was maybe going to photoshop them."

Kurt tried rather hard to stay mad, he really truly did, so he huffed out between gasps to hold in his laughter. "To what?"

"I'd rather not say, let's just say I mentioned things that would make Madonna blush."

"Oh. My. God. Rachel!" he finally let loose, giving up and bursting out into guffaws. Pure joyous laughter. Who'd have thought Rachel, who'd minutes ago been on the path to memorable, excruciating death, would have prompted this out of him?

He finally trailed off into giggles, or tried to, minutes later when mall security was beginning to look at him funny.

"Oh, I really needed that," he said as he wiped at the little tears that gathered from his laughter.

"You're welcome." She offered a shrug before looping her arm with his and dragging him to walk beside her.

Kurt knew he should leave while he could; he had his fun, he got his uniform back, so why was he still here? Rachel could be an idiot sometimes, but she was his idiot scheming friend, whom he for some crazy reason, missed being near.

"So, now that we got that out of the way," Rachel said, "why has Finn been acting so weird? Are you two fighting? I mean, first Finn acts weird and don't think Mercedes hasn't complained day and night about you not returning her calls! You know she prefers to talk than text most days!" Rachel chided as they stopped in front of Victoria's Secret.

"Rachel," Kurt said warningly as she seemed to be heading in that store's direction, "I'm gay but I'm not that gay!"

"I'll have to ask Blaine about that."

"W-what's that suppose to mean!" Kurt spluttered, feeling his cheeks warm.

"Oh, you know…" Rachel replied with a suggestive brow raise, as she dragged him into the store. Kurt hoped to never ever see that brow raise from Rachel ever again.

"Besides, I need some new perfume, and some of them have glitter in them!"

"I suppose that's not so bad." Kurt said as he warily passed by the stacks of women's underwear.

"Don't think I've forgotten our conversation." she said as she perused the fragrance shelves.

"Um, which one?"

"You know which! Seriously, why aren't you talking to most of us? I admit I convinced you to come here initially because of less than good intentions, but frankly we've all been worried about you."

"I don't think _convinced_ is the right term here." Kurt trailed off as Rachel almost slammed down the sample bottle in annoyance, before she turned to Kurt.

"That's beside the point, Kurt, can't you see we're all worried? Was Finn a jerk again, is that why he's been acting so off lately? Because if that's the case, you have to know that even if you two were fighting we're both of your friends. We'd never ignore you just because you two had a disagreement!" Rachel seemed to punctuate each word with her frustration.

"I know," he replied, or at least he thought he knew, but that had never really been the issue. He'd always felt he needed to be a certain way for his friends to really be there for him. There were so many times in his life where he needed his friends, and they felt more like acquaintances than best friends. He knew that some of that was due to his indecisiveness with keeping them at arm's length and wanting to embrace them as if they were family. Still, how could he ever know if he could trust them?

Friendship was..._is_...conditional love. They didn't _have_ to be Kurt's friend. After having to leave because of a bully, right before a big competition, only to be their competition, to then be far enough away where instead of it being a more _carpe diem_-esque relationship, they had to schedule all their time together, when would enough be enough and they got tired of him?

"Kurt? Hello?" Rachel waved her hand in front of his face until he grasped it and gently laid placed it on her waist.

"What?" he snapped.

"Woah, where'd that come from? Relax. You zoned out for a full minute there, I almost sprayed you with this weird peach scent to try and get your attention!"

"Gaga no!" he replied, aghast, as he read the label.

She giggled knowingly before turning serious once again. "Like I was saying, we care, Kurt, just know that we're here and we want to know what's going on, okay? So just… whenever you and Finn are ready, I'm sure a few of us would be more than happy to mediate a peaceful agreement between you two."

Kurt sighed, and, frustrated, ran a hand through his hair, despite the time it had taken him to style it this morning. "We're not fighting, Rachel"

Suddenly her eyes seemed to light up, as if she was getting the new gossip, before they dulled and she just stared at him, "Well? What is it then?"

"I-I don't quite know how to tell _you_ of all people, Rachel, you used to be my main competition and I just don't know how I feel about sharing this with you. Especially after the stunt you just pulled with my Cheerios uniform."

She seemed to realize she wouldn't get her answer right this moment, not with Kurt seemed so nervous, he was shaking more than he did when he announced he was transferring.

"Maybe some frozen yogurt will cheer you up." She smiled, and grasped his hand to pull him out of the store. "I'll even pay to try and make up for today."

Kurt didn't quite know what happened, nothing had really changed, and yet he felt so warm and happy in that moment.

Maybe Rachel wasn't completely tactless, after all.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Kurt pressed his hand to his ringing left ear. This was definitely the worst time for this to happen. He absolutely abhorred food courts, and this obnoxious ringing wasn't helping calm his anxiety at all.

"Here you go, a non-fat kiwi strawberry frozen yogurt. I even got them to add some bits of fresh strawberries on top!" announced Rachel proudly before settling herself on the seat before him with her organic orange and honey yogurt mixture.

He cringed at both orders, his anxiety at the volume of the room and the echo of the ringing in his ears still kept him on edge. He didn't quite feel like he could stomach anything at this moment.

"So how's your uniform doing?"

Kurt glanced at the item seated beside him. "It looks as thankfully pristine as it can be, still wrinkled, but I suppose the cleaners will be able to fix that."

"I _am_ sorry if I messed up your uniform Kurt, but you understand I only took it with the best intentions at heart. Right?"

Her glossed lips seemed to distract him from the murmurings of people around him as he forced himself to lean in to hear her.

"Would you mind repeating what you said? I seem to have been distracted by this delicious treat." He gestured to his yogurt as Rachel frowned.

"Not at all, but it looks more like you've barely touched your yogurt."

"Then the recent memory of it distracted me," he amended impatiently as she repeated her question.

"You get why I did it, right?"

"I guess," he offered a shrug, "listen, I appreciate what menial effort you've provided in asking for my forgiveness of this atrocious misdeed you've done, but that doesn't making things right. Especially since you know how Coach Sylvester barely let this uniform out of the claws of her hands. Instead I'd appreciate if you just stop bothering Finn about what's wrong."

"But-"

"No, if it's important he'll tell you."

"That's the thing though," she said, thoughtfully, "He looks like he _wants _to tell me, and not just me, he seems to be itching to talk to the whole glee club. Yet, every time one of us asks him about it, his face seems to contort into this look of pure sadness when he says he can't! Even Mr. Schue tried to wriggle it out of him, but since it doesn't seem to be harmful to him, we can't make him tell us. So, while what I did by stealing your uniform was wrong, I'm not sorry for doing it."

Kurt simply glared at her defiantly, as she crossed her arms and continued on her tirade. He couldn't let her see that what she just said broke his heart a little. How didn't he notice that what he was asking of Finn, was _hurting_ him?

"If anything this proves my theory that this isn't just a Finn thing. You and Finn may not be fighting but you two are hiding something. And I know he wants to tell us. We will find out Kurt, and I am going to tell Mercedes that you're _both _hiding something. Soon enough we're going to find out what's wrong Kurt because we're tired of sitting back and letting you deal with things on your own. We tried with the Karofsky situation, and look where that got you! Farther away from us. I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen again. You're our _friend, _Kurt. We're going to care about you, whether you want us to or not."

She stood up and he blinked at her in shock, what was he suppose to say to that?

"What's more important Kurt, hiding what's bothering you, or facing it head on with support right there for you?"

Then she snatched up her yogurt and stormed off. He smirked to himself sardonically, rolling his eyes. Leave it to Rachel to flounce off dramatically, but still manage to send his heart racing anxiously at a mile a minute.

Wasn't this mall trip supposed to be simple? He was supposed to just get his uniform and _leave_. He gripped his uniform in anger. Why did this stupid thing matter to him anyway? It wasn't like he'd be able to sing at that level again, and this stupid ringing in his ear was back.

He absently scratched at his ear before standing and throwing out his barely touched yogurt.

_Damn Berry,_ he thought to himself. Maybe for once, she was speaking the truth.

First things first; he realized he had to talk to Finn.

Had asking Finn to hide this really been asking too much of him?

**TBC.**

**If there are any mistakes blame me, not ze betah, because I'm posting this straight after waking up. I'm still yawning and everything! :) Speaking of ze betah, "To Carve Love on Her Arms" she's been awesome! I really appreciate all her hard work and comments so if you have the time, check out her fics. She's got skills too.**

**I've been meaning to do this for the past few chapters, apologies for not doing it sooner, thank you to all you reviewers [whom I hoped I've already thanked individually!], alerts, and favorites. Seriously all the things you do to acknowledge liking this fic really helps and frankly, makes me extremely happy.**

**To be past more than 10 reviews has been a fangirl dream of mine, so thanks and I hope you continue to like this story! :D**

*** hugs ***

**Review? I still and always would, love to know what you think! :)**

**Oh and...this chapter is no April Fools Joke. Seriously, I'm never good at those, haha. Plus I wrote it yesterday so, yea. Hope your having fun with the randomness of today though. :)**


	9. Chapter 9

Kurt gasped as he awoke and grasped at his head, groaning. He had the workings of an intense heading coming on and there was _no way_ he was planning to move from his bed, especially when he saw what time it was – 10 AM on a Saturday morning? After the week he had, no way was he going to move an inch.

That was, until his door was thrown open, and he had to cringe at the noise it made when it slammed against the wall.

"Dude! You gotta get up!" Finn sang excitedly before he sat on the edge Kurt's bed, completely ignoring Kurt's groan of displeasure, as he burrowed further into his quilt.

"I am doing no such thing. I suggest you try that tactic with someone else, because this Hummel isn't moving an inch." Kurt's response was muffled, but he knew Finn could understand him perfectly.

A few seconds passed by with no response from Finn, and Kurt started to doze off. He was happily floating between bliss and supporting his throbbing head on the cold side of his pillow when Finn just _had_ to go and interrupt his bliss by pulling his quilt off of him.

"What?" demanded Kurt, as his forced himself to sit up, causing his head to throb even more. His left ear felt like it was on fire. Maybe, he guessed, he was getting sick.

"If you don't get up and get dressed, I'll let Rachel come in here and raid your closet." Finn threatened, picking at Kurt's books on his dresser. "Hey dude," he said, flipping through Kurt's notebook. "I can't believe you doodled Kurt plus Blaine in a heart."

"How would Rachel get into my closet if she's not here?" Kurt quirked his brow despite being in pain, he knew he still needed to interrogate Finn. "And give that back, Finn Hudson!" Kurt snatched wildly at his book.

"Um." Finn seemed to be blushing as his eyes frantically scanned the room. What he was looking for, Kurt didn't know. "I don't know?" he offered a shrug and a smile, obviously in hopes that Kurt would dismiss his threat.

"Right," Kurt drawled out. "Well you best make sure to tell your imaginary Berry that if I catch her or _you_ anywhere near my closet ever again, I'll make Sue Sylvester look like a baby bunny."

"Dude, Coach Sylvester is _horrible_, there is no way you could do that. Wait, dude, Rachel's not imaginary!"

"I can, just raid my closet and you'll find out how," Kurt continued to rub at his head in annoyance "and I _know_ she's not imaginary. I just mean she's not here now, so tell her when you see her." His patience was already waning from this conversation.

"Alright dude you seriously need a chill pill, but what I meant is, she's here. So, yeah, that's why you gotta get dressed."

Finn must have thought that that was the end of their conversation, because he turned to head out, but Kurt shuffled to his feet slowly, hoping to avoid causing any dizziness as his headache pounded in his skull. "Wait," he called, and Finn paused immediately. Kurt braced himself on his doorway, effectively blocking Finn's exit.

"What do you mean she's here?"

"Uh, is there any other meaning to someone being here? I mean, she's in our kitchen, and she's not alone, all of glee club decided to stop by."

"Why?" Kurt's bed-head stuck up wildly and he tried to flatten it as he unintentionally shouted his question.

"Dude, do you need some of that warm milk or something? You need to relax." Finn looked like he wanted to do something, but he didn't know what. So he settled for grasping Kurt's right shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"Besides, they're all here because they say they miss you, isn't that cool?" Finn seemed to swing Kurt out of the way so he could open the door. "See ya in a bit bro!"

Kurt was left staring at his open doorway before gently closing it and leaning against it in exhaustion. What were his friends doing here?

He slowly made his way back to bed, only to realize there was no way he'd get to sleep, at least not with his friends waiting for him. They'd just be more loud than usual to get him to come out of his room, he _really _didn't want that to happen.

His ear throbbed painfully jerking him awake, he supposed now was as good a time as any to try and at least look more presentable. Although he surely didn't feel that way.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"Man, your left ear looks like you just got smacked on the side of your face, _hard."_

"Gee, thanks Sam, I really needed to hear that after just waking up." Kurt rolled his eyes before walking past him and Puck standing in the kitchen's doorway.

He heard many surprised exclamations of his name, but instead of responding he chose to peruse the medicine cabinet for a nice, healthy dose, of Tylenol to muffle the now-constant throbbing of his ear and head.

"Why's everyone whispering?" Kurt turned to grab a bottle of water from the fridge to help along his Tylenol, then turned back around to face all the other New Directions members staring at him oddly while Finn stumbled around trying to find something. He raised his hand triumphantly when he pulled out a notepad and pen from their counter's drawer.

"What?" Kurt asked the room at large, downing his water.

Finn looked away and instead seemed to focus intently on writing on the notepad.

"Are you on drugs? 'Cause I could've sworn we were loud enough for Finn's mom to hear us in your living room. If you are, dude, you totally should have asked. I could have given you more of my Nana's special cupcakes!" Puck replied, more excited than he should be about Kurt possibly being on drugs, at least, in Kurt's opinion that is. Kurt rolled his eyes and winced, he realized that was a bad idea as his eyeballs throbbed now, pounding in the back of his eye sockets.

"Puckerman, I am not, nor have I ever been on drugs!"

"Alright, chill man." Puck threw his arms up defensively, "just trying to help my bro out."

"Sure," Kurt drawled before his attention was drawn by Finn leaving the room, notebook in hand.

"There is something seriously missing in that boy's head," muttered Kurt. The room was completely silent, save Sam coughing awkwardly.

"Seriously guys, it's not funny! If you're in my house you could at least include me in your conversation!" Kurt frowned at them as his headache continued to throb.

"Well, excuse us! We were trying to, but you kept ignoring us. Are you sick or something? Is that why you haven't been calling me back?" Mercedes frowned in concern from her place across Kurt at the kitchen counter.

"I am now." He rubbed at his forehead. "Do you guys want anything? I appreciate the gesture, thank you for coming to say hi, or at least that's what I think it is, but I just want to sleep off this headache."

Mercedes frown just stayed planted on her face as the rest of the group seemed to look at each other in silent communication. "We were kind of hoping to hang out and have a jam session."

Kurt simply stared at them and blinked rapidly in surprise. "When have we ever done that?"

"We _should_," pushed Artie from beside the kitchen table, "we haven't sounded half as good without you."

"Flattery will get you everywhere," Kurt replied with a smile, but he still wanted to distract them from this idea. This was probably the worst situation he could get into with his friends. The Warblers were still getting used to his slight flubs when singing, but with this jam session, rather than harmonize, all Kurt would have was his voice to rely on, instead of his friends. What if they were to ask him to sing a solo, because to them, why _wouldn't _he want to be the center of attention belting out a song that fit him perfectly?

Because he didn't think he could.

This headache wasn't the only thing holding him back, every time he opened his mouth for the past few days, it felt like he was hearing another person talking. It was as if a hurricane masked his voice and blocked out everything around him.

How was he supposed to _sing_ over that?

He couldn't, he just _couldn't_.

"Kurt!" yelled Finn as he stumbled into the room breathless, "Burt and my mom want to talk to you."

Kurt grumbled to himself about having to leave when he was just about to make himself some toast, but did as asked nonetheless.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Finn instantly felt the eyes of everyone in the room weigh down on him as Kurt disappeared from sight.

"So, um, everyone ready to hear me rock the drums? I don't usually get to do that enough so I think it'll be fun!"

"Not really because you didn't tell us Kurt was sick, I may have just wasted a morning to sleep in, for nothing." Quinn said with a roll of her eyes, she was busy filing her fingernails.

"You didn't have to come, Quinn, it was all _my _idea anyway!" remarked Rachel with a flick of her hair. She moved from sitting beside Artie to stand next to Mercedes, who merely offered a look of disbelief.

"Um, I don't think it really matters. Burt says Kurt could be really sick, so I thought we'd just move our jam session to Puck's place." Finn nervously added to their conversation, when those two fought things got _scary. _At least for him, which one was he suppose to side with? Scary, and confusing.

"Why would I say yes to that?" demanded Puck with a glare.

"Shut up Puck, I want to hear why Mr. Hummel thinks Kurt could be sick, spill it Finn." Mercedes demanded with a fierce glare, Finn was starting to think all the girls of his glee club were scary. He just hoped Tina forgot her blade of equality thing today.

"He just has a headache, it's nothing serious." replied Finn with a shrug and a shaky smile, he hoped everything was going okay with his mom, Burt and Kurt.

"I don't think so."

"Rachel, will you please keep your crazy ideas to yourself this time?" Finn asked tiredly, after having Burt basically frazzle himself with worry, Finn didn't think he could handle her right now.

He flopped in her empty seat beside Artie and a sleeping Brittanyto his left.

"Well, if you'd just tell me, I mean, _us, _then I wouldn't have to use my creative alternatives – not _schemes_, thank you very much – to get the information I want, I mean, that _we need_."

Finn put his head into his folded arms upon the kitchen table and simply mumbled, "Not gonna say a thing."

"I will," came Kurt's voice from the doorway. Finn turned to see his stepbrother's eyes bloodshot and red-rimmed. Burt must have told him what he thought was wrong with him, and Finn knew if he were having that problem he'd have cried too. Probably while his mom held him, he hoped his mom had held Kurt. He seemed like he'd need it.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Kurt cleared his throat and sat himself at the far end of the table, Sam had awkwardly offered him his seat when he noticed how upset Kurt seemed to be, so he crossed his legs and tried to seem as composed as he could be.

"I am…" He took a deep breath and exhaled before trying again, "I am going deaf."

He didn't know what he expected, but the lack of movement seemed to surprise him. They all just sat, or stood where they pleased. Artie shook Brittany awake, and even she simply sat and stared at him. He supposed they were as appalled as he when he had been told of the progression of the loss.

"Completely?" Mercedes asked, more so whispered, her voice seemed rough with the shock of the revelation.

Kurt couldn't seem to get his throat clear because he had to clear it again before replying, "We don't know."

"How can you not know, you either are or you aren't," Santana remarked with a scowl, but he didn't take offense at her dismissive response. He would have, if it wasn't obvious how badly she was shaking, or her stance. She was standing with her arms crossed, and her fingernails were digging into her own arms so hard, he was worried she'd make herself bleed.

He was about to tell her to relax, that this wasn't her problem and he never intended it to be _anyone's_ problem, but he was distracted by a pair of arms engulfing him in a hug.

"Tell me, Kurt."

"'Cedes, it's not that bad. I just have a really bad ear infection and let's just say it could get worse."

He lowered his head to lean against her shoulder, and he thought that it might be awkward, but thankfully, it wasn't. He'd missed doing this, he missed his girl so much, and to be able to hug her and be comforted by his best friend. He didn't know how he'd gone on without her.

"If I don't get some meds soon, it'll get worse, but I don't want to go to the emergency room either." Immediately after saying that, Mercedes slapped him on the arm.

"What do you mean you don't want to go to the emergency room? No one ever _wants_ to go, you fool, but you need to if you need those meds. What happens if you don't? What was your hearing like before this? Why the _hell_ didn't you call me!"

Kurt flinched, but took her anger in stride, he supposed having a friend love him so much still felt new to him. He rubbed his slightly aching arm before trying to answer her questions.

"Well, I've lost hearing in both ears, my right more so than my left, because while my left was in a frozen level of loss, my right just keeps progressing. I knew of the loss for years, but it _never_ progressed, until now that is."

He looked at his friends gathered around him in concern, of course, he knew they knew exactly why he was so frightened of the hearing progression.

"It hasn't affected my singing too much, but with this infection it's like I can barely tell high from low. Everything sounds so weird, and honestly I'm so close to hating my own voice it's driving me _insane."_

"And you're here and not at the emergency room because..?" asked Lauren from her seat besides Finn, she was munching on some yellow peeps, causing Kurt to unintentionally flinch. She didn't know about Pavarotti much, so it wasn't her fault that she was eating snacks that reminded him of his flying friend. Between his hearing issues, and basic Dalton work, he'd barely had time to try and visit his friend's grave much anyway.

He shook himself from his intense focus on her snack, and instead tried to reply to her. He thought it wise to do so since she'd stopped eating them to ask him her question twice already.

"Despite the severity of what my father claims the situation to be, I'm hoping he can work it out to where the medication can be prescribed over the phone, we already know what it is, and a trip to the emergency room would be a waste of money because this isn't an emergency."

"It is if it can cause more hearing loss man!" Finn slammed his hand on the table in frustration, causing everyone to jump, but Kurt seemed to barely notice the noise. He didn't jump, but he surely glared back at Finn. He didn't want to admit it, but it was already getting worse. Earlier that would have felt like a slap to the side of his head, that noise would have barred down on him painfully, but now all he heard was the echo of what he thought to be something falling.

If he hadn't seen what Finn had just done, then he wouldn't have noticed its progression. Damn Finn for making him notice, without intending to make him notice.

"And you don't think I know that? My doctor was on vacation today, so I told begged Dad to wait a while, that maybe over the counter meds to stave off the pain at least. We'll probably get the _proper _meds by tomorrow and by then it shouldn't be so bad. I'll be fine, all I'm planning to do is go back to bed and try to sleep off this headache for a while."

Kurt was about to wave bye to everyone and make his way back upstairs, but Finn had to add his last two cents.

"I don't care how much you seem to _love_ putting off these important medical things. I'm gonna talk to Burt about getting another doctor in his office to check out your file. If it's that simple, and they've known you for so long, we can get the meds sooner." Finn's chair screeched as he stood, or it should have. Kurt glared at the offending chair, shouldn't he have heard that? He clenched his fist and breathed deeply before exhaling.

It didn't matter now, it'd all be fixed by tomorrow. He was sure of it.

Kurt sighed exasperated, and secretly touched, at his stepbrother's worrying over him. "Do what you will, but I really don't think it'll work. I'll talk to the rest of you guys later, and yes Mercedes, I will _call _you from now on."

After saying bye and hearing everyone grumble about not being able to "jam" with him, as they so put it, Kurt tiredly walked out of the room. The last thing he heard was Finn grumbling, obviously intending for everyone to hear, "I'm gonna call Blaine, he can usually handle Kurt better than any of us when he gets like this."

Kurt was about to storm in there and defend himself against the need for him to be 'handled', but then he remembered, he loved seeing Blaine and _b__eing_ with Blaine.

Just Blaine.

So he shrugged, content to let Finn do what he pleased, and finally made his way upstairs.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**AN: I am **_**so sorry **_**for being late with this update, I know you don't need or want excuses, so all I'll say is RL is mean to us fanfic writers. _ lol. However, I tried my best to write bit by bit and fight the writers block that also sprung itself upon me.**

**This fic is almost done, well at least, it will be soon. So please review, I'd love to know what you think, and your opinions always give me a fresh perspective on possible pieces in future chapters.**

*** HUGS ***

**Thanks to my wonderful beta, "To Carve Love on Her Arms" [here on ff dot net] aka "Dreamerofmonday" over on livejournal. Who is a wonderful person to talk to, and always adds some great pieces of dialogue and critics. She does her job well and her fanfiction is wonderful! So, yea, I just wanted to say much thanks to her for being supermegafoxyawesomehot! **

**That is all, see ya'll next chapter! :D**

**OH I almost forgot, in regards to this ear infection with Kurt. I am no doctor, but I did experience all that Kurt is. So, apologies if it doesn't seem like an accurate description, but is my own. ^_^ I did research with the internets, but for the more descriptive qualities I pulled from the crazy depths of my mind. Teehee.**


	10. Chapter 10

Kurt awoke at 8 AM the next morning and cursed himself for being so sick. Where had the day gone? _Oh_, he groaned in remorse, he'd missed seeing Blaine. Considering the time, Blaine was definitely home by now.

He exhaled, relieved as he realized his ear wasn't throbbing any longer, and sunk into his wonderfully comfortable and cool pillows. Missing Blaine, and his friends, for more sleep was totally worth it for his ear to not throb anymore. He must have slept through a lot of the pain because though his head ached, he didn't feel like it was _throbbing_ anymore. He hadn't thought that there was much of a difference between the two before yesterday, but he could definitely feel it today. His whole body just felt lighter and less horrible.

He cuddled into his quilt for a moment, and decided to shelve his happier thoughts. Mostly because he supposed he should get up now, he didn't want to, but he really should, if his grumbling stomach was anything to go by anyway.

He slowly rose from bed and the room immediately seemed to tilt. He grasped at his bedside table and fumbled for his lamp as it nearly toppled over. _Perhaps it was his having just woken up,_ he thought, _what else could cause this?_

He absentmindedly scratched at his still warm left ear. An ear infection could go away after one night, right?

After his shower and making himself look semi-presentable, he realized he was wrong. Completely, and utterly _wrong_. It was a brief release from imminent pain. It was as if moving was all around confusing. His ear felt like it was burning, the aching of his head was affecting him so much more, and why did everything seem so _quiet?_

He thought maybe it was his absent-mindedness. It's not as if he had the time or reason to focus on what he's hearing, not when he's trying not to fall flat on his face that is. The rooms just kept spinning and the aching of his head was so constant. Honestly, how could he focus on anything aside from that?

He wearily gripped the banister as if it were his only lifeline and slowly dragged himself downstairs. The house seemed to be bathed in luminescent sunlight, any other day and he would have reveled in it, but at the moment the sunlight was like several tiny daggers piercing his skull. He cringed, but continued to walk past the living room towards the kitchen. That is, until he saw what, or more so _who_ was in his living room.

Bodies were scattered everywhere, he gazed into the chaos that had once been his home as the members of New Directions and the Warblers seemed to squirm or kick in their sleep.

He noticed Puck's guitar lying across the room and realized they must have had their 'jam session' anyway, but why were they still here?

His eyes widened in surprise when he turned to find Blaine standing beside him when he looked behind him and noticed the kitchen light on. Blaine must have gotten up for a snack.

He turned back to Blaine to ask him why he was being so quiet, but he voice caught in his throat. Blaine was talking to him, well it sure _looked _like he was, his lips were moving but no sound was coming out. He shakily placed his hand upon Blaine's lips, to pause whatever ramblings he may have had going on. Perhaps his dizziness was distracting him. That had to be it, it's not like he could have missed that when he woke up, right?

Right! He turned towards the kitchen and began banging drawers, turning on the sinks faucet, anything at all that he knew would produce some kind of noise. He strained to try and hear anything at all, but he heard nothing. He didn't even hear his head pounding from his running himself rabid, he'd even be okay with that because at least it'd be a noise, at least it wouldn't be as eerily silent as it had become. He jumped back from his place near the counter because Blaine had just placed his hand upon his arm.

When had he shown up? He looked at Blaine confused and his shaking became more pronounced. The room was getting smaller, just like that time in the doctor's office. Maybe if he talked, it would help; he didn't know why, but he felt that if he could just hear himself think out loud the world would suddenly make more sense.

Kurt stepped towards Blaine, using the counter to help balance himself and whispered, "Blaine?"

And then, nothing. He heard nothing! He could feel the vibrations of his throat, but he couldn't hear a thing. Was he going crazy, was this it? Why was this happening?

Nothing made sense, Blaine looked like he was talking again, and all he wanted was to hear him. He needed to hear Blaine's voice. He suddenly let go of the counter thinking he'd move the last few inches towards his friends, but the effort to move in this room that just kept spinning with each step he took was too much.

So he fell, he collapsed in a tangled heap upon the floor. He could care less how he looked at the moment, he barely even noticed. The floor, at least, didn't move.

He desperately started pounding on the floor, but he didn't hear his fists slapping against the tile as he thought he should. He couldn't take this anymore; he just felt the need to scream.

If he could hear anything, it'd be his own screaming, right? He sure hoped so.

He screamed and clawed at his own ears, 'Work!' he yelled, 'Why won't you work!' He screamed and clawed up until he realized he couldn't anymore because Blaine wouldn't let him. He knew Blaine was trying to be soothing, trying to talk to him and calm him down.

Blaine's breath was warm near his ear and trying to get Kurt to look him in the eye, but it wouldn't work. Kurt knew it wouldn't because he couldn't hear a damn thing.

So suddenly, nothing seemed to matter anymore. Nothing made sense anymore. He couldn't scream, his throat went sore from overuse. If he could sing he would, but if he can't hear himself speak, why would he even try a pathetic attempt at singing?

Silence was all he had. It was never his biggest fear to go deaf, and in this moment he regretted not fearing it more.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Blaine didn't know what more he could do. Kurt just kept screaming and crying. His friend was _hurting _himself, and he had no idea why. He tried asking, but Kurt wouldn't answer back. He turned to the other kids, who'd been woken up by Kurt's screaming, standing around the kitchen looking rumpled in their pajamas. He glared balefully at Finn, "What are you doing? Don't just stand there, go get his dad!"

Abruptly Finn clamored out of the room, shoving Puck and David out of the way, as Blaine continued to try and soothe Kurt as best as he could. Once in awhile, Kurt would look up and Blaine would try and get his attention, but Kurt simply shook his head and muttered _"No, no, no"_ before curling up once again.

"Do you think there's any way we can help?" Mercedes asked hesitantly as she glanced worriedly at her friend.

"No offense, to any of you, but I think you should leave. As much as I know you _want _to help. I think you'd only get in the way, and I don't think Kurt would appreciate all of you seeing him like this. Maybe when he gets better you can perform a joint routine for him? I think it'd help him out if you all showed how much you cared. Sound good?"

Rachel stepped forward in her silk pink matching pajama set, "That sounds like a wonderful idea I for one believe we should do a medley of sorts-"

"That's nice Berry, let's take your annoying speeches out of the vicinity alright? By the time we're out of here and to a different place I'm sure you'll be done and we can get to some real planning, right?"

"Excuse me!" Rachel scoffed as Lauren gripped her arm and lead her into the living room where everyone else had already rushed to, to gather their things in a hurry. Blaine was so thankful that they were so understanding about this. In any other situation he would insist on them staying and cooing over Kurt, mostly because he'd be doing it right alongside them. However, in this moment he was positive if they even tried to come near Kurt it'd set him more on edge than he needed to be.

Mere minutes later he heard the front door being slammed shut and Blaine sagged down in relief as he noticed Kurt had at least stopped reaching to claw at his ears, although he'd need a few bandages for the scratches on his hand. He glanced at one, as the other was preoccupied with rubbing Kurt's back, he couldn't believe how sharp his nails could be. He realized that he should check Kurt's ears, and hoped that Kurt wouldn't flinch away.

He kept rubbing Kurt's back as the boy whimpered when Blaine tried to gently touch his left ear and then his right to check if Kurt broke the skin. He winced when he noticed the rough scratches around and on his ear. "Hopefully we'll be getting to the emergency room soon," he muttered aloud.

"Damn right we are," Burt said. "That infection must have been there longer than we thought. Kid must be freaking out right now." Burt had finally entered the room and headed straight for his son. He went to pull Kurt to stand but Kurt would have none of that. He immediately grabbed Blaine's sleep-worn Buckeye's jersey in a vice grip.

"Sir, I think the only way he'll let me go is if we cut my jersey and I don't think that'd halt him at all. He'd probably just reach for me again." Blaine winced as Kurt grabbed a tighter hold of his jersey.

Burt scratched his head as he replied, "I suppose you'll just have to come along with us to the Emergency Room."

"I was planning to do that anyway, sir." Blaine shrugged as he tried to stand while steadying Kurt at the same time. Thankfully, Kurt was okay with his Dad helping him, because he allowed Burt to lean forward to grasp Kurt's arm and steady him, as long as he could hold onto Blaine.

"What made you think I'd be okay with that?" Burt's expression was unreadable, but Blaine hoped he hadn't gotten on Burt's bad side, he desperately felt the need to stay by Kurt's side.

"I didn't really think, I was just going with my instinct to stand by him. Kurt's my friend, sir." Blaine added the sir as an afterthought, although he was sure that it was barely noticed. Burt stared into Blaine's eyes as he seemed to be searching for something, _God only knows what_, Blaine thought.

He must have found it, though, because he nodded, and patted Blaine's shoulder before moving to stand beside his swaying son. "You're a good kid." he simply said.

"Um, thanks, Sir."

Burt huffed as Kurt reached for his startlingly red left ear, but Blaine gently pushed it back down with a shake of his head.

"Enough with the sir stuff, the name's Burt, use it. Now, I think my son needs to get to the hospital ASAP. Think you can help me with that? Carole and Finn are probably already in the car, I'm gonna grab him a jacket. Call if you need my help, yea?"

"Yes Si- I mean, Burt." Burt nodded and glanced back at Kurt worriedly before leaving to find his son a jacket.

By the time Blaine and Kurt reached the front door Kurt was shaking even worse. Blaine had to wonder to himself if Kurt would even want to go outside. The closer they came to the door the more he would shake his head, the more he'd make noises of protests, and the more Blaine hoped for Burt to come back to them.

He reached for the doorknob and immediately felt Kurt's small, quivering hands, grasp his wrist. He wasn't just holding his wrist either, he was in an alarmingly frenzied state. The boy was basically cutting off Blaine's blood flow, and yes it _hurt, _but he was more worried about how to get Kurt to the emergency room. His wrist would be fine in a few minutes, God only knew how long Kurt would take to heal from this predicament.

Burt lumbered down the stairs towards them, "I couldn't find any of his jackets in that closet of his so I just nabbed one of mine, let's go." He threw the worn plaid coat over Kurt's shoulder and moved towards the entryway, but Kurt simply turned and burrowed his head onto Blaine's shoulder. He didn't want to leave, that much was obvious, but at this point they had no choice but to shove him out of the door.

So they did – Burt grabbed his son firmly, yet gently, by his shoulders and steered him out of the door, with Blaine pulling Kurt along as quickly as possible without too much pressure. Sitting Kurt between him and Finn, Blaine bit his lip as he watched Kurt settle uncomfortably into the car.

The poor kid was a mess of tears and Blaine knew if it weren't for this situation Kurt would be trying to hide how he was feeling to not cause worry. His being so open with Blaine, while oddly comforting, was scary.

If he felt so scared, to prompt him to cling to Blaine so hysterically, what would the diagnosis say? All signs were pointing to Kurt's deafness. He didn't know how Kurt would react to the bright lights and continuous chaos of the emergency room. He hoped with all his heart that Kurt would be seen at the hospital as soon as possible, with Kurt keening in his arms and the rest of the Hummel-Hudson clan glancing worriedly over at him, this was surely a time sensitive matter.

If Kurt didn't get cared for soon, he'd just continue to head towards hysterics, and then what could they do? There were only so many soothing motions Blaine could make before Kurt would spiral to a point where he'd barely notice them.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Four hours after their stint in the triage unit and they were still seated in the emergency room waiting for Kurt's name to be called. Kurt had fallen asleep a little while ago, and was content to wait, his head resting on Blaine's shoulder.

Blaine looked towards the fluorescent lights of the ceiling and sighed, it was just their luck that the emergency room was busy. Damn weekends.

"Do you think he'll be okay?"

Blaine turned to stare into Finn's worried, confused eyes, and shrugged. _How would I know? I'm not a doctor,_ Blaine was half-tempted to say, but he knew Finn was genuinely concerned. So instead, he sighed, and said, "I'm sure Kurt will pull through this, just as strong as he had with the other issues in his life."

Finn nodded, seemingly satisfied with his answer, but Blaine knew it didn't really mean much. For all he knew the boy he cared for so much, that leaned against him so heavily, was destined for some kind of harsh reality when it came to his hearing. However, he knew that, even if for this small amount of time he could offer _someone _comfort – because obviously, he wasn't giving Kurt much comfort beyond being there –, that he was helping, and he was glad to have helped at all.

"Hummel!" called a nurse from the patient's rooms entrance. Blaine tried to gently coax his friend awake as the nurse waited rather impatiently across the room. With Burt gripping Kurt's elbow to steady him, and Blaine's arm around Kurt's shoulders, the two of them guided a half-asleep Kurt across the waiting room, Carole following close behind. Kurt yawned, letting out a soft mewling noise, and Blaine smiled at how adorable it was. Kurt's sleep-weary disposition allowed Blaine and Burt to guide him without much difficulty, and Kurt was able to find his balance easily enough as he woke up from his nap.

Kurt wormed out of their grip and insisted on walking the final steps towards the consultation room by himself, which was great for Kurt, but Blaine couldn't help but feel out of place. Now without Kurt in his arms what use did he have intruding on this family emergency?

As Burt, Carole and Kurt disappeared into the room, Blaine stopped outside, standing awkwardly by the door.

"Hey kid, you coming or not?" he heard Burt call from inside the room, and thought that Burt was talking to Finn, who was still sitting, quiet and frozen in his seat. However, it was Blaine whose shoulder Burt laid a warm hand on, and Blaine to whom Burt gestured to enter the room.

"You didn't think we'd leave you out here to wait alone, did you? Especially when my boy needs you."

Blaine gazed into the scrutinizing eyes of Mr. Hummel, and he knew in that moment he was accepted, if he hadn't felt it before, he surely felt so now. He also knew this wasn't a time to smile or behave in the giddy manner his heart seemed to feel was appropriate for their passing this milestone in their 'relationship', but he felt so relieved that Kurt's Dad didn't vehemently hate him or make him leave Kurt's side.

Despite the worry that was surely clogging this man's heart, he had thought of Blaine, and that meant a lot to him.

Blaine smiled, albeit a tad weakly as he nodded, beckoning to Finn. "Come on, Kurt needs us."

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"So will he ever get his hearing back?" Burt asked, once the doctor was done examining Kurt's ear.

"I'm sorry sir, that's for his specialist to decide. However I can prescribe these strong ear drops. They should get rid of the infection, and in my opinion, hopefully restore his hearing."

Burt took the prescription from the emergency room doctor and glanced at his son, who looked so _tiny_ sitting upon that stark-white hospital bed. His ears were glossed with disinfectant cream and tiny bandages on the deepest of cuts he'd made, but Burt's eyes always drifted back to his son's eyes. His boy looked so miserable, and lost. Never had he seen his son look so lost—well not since long ago, when his wife had passed away. He'd hoped to never see that hopeless, lost, gaze upon his son's face ever again.

Yet, there it was.

He reached to ruffle his son's hair in hopes of getting a reaction, and Kurt seemed to frown, shaking the notebook in front of him. Burt glanced to read it and realized Kurt was asking him a question, again.

Since they'd talked to the doctor and Kurt seemed a little more settled after he'd taken a much needed extra strength Tylenol, his boy still had yet to utter a word. He'd indicated his need for a pen and paper, and the waiting room nurse had provided one.

But Burt was worried. He never thought he'd truly _miss_ his son's voice, he never thought there'd be a moment where he wouldn't hear his son at least once a day, but today was the day and he found himself wondering if Kurt would break the way he had at the age of ten, two years after the death of his mother. Ten-year-old Kurt had crawled into his father bed one night, tears running down his face and he had uttered, "I've forgotten what Mom sounds like," and it had broken Burt's heart. The problem had been fixed with a quick re-watching of the home videos they'd taken so religiously – Burt finally understood their importance – but Kurt had been so cautious ever since. Burt wondered if Kurt would forget how he sounded like, if _they _would all forget how Kurt sounded like.

He frowned, but turned his attention to Kurt's written question.

_**How long will it take for those drops to work?**_

Burt turned and asked the doctor, who flicked her hair behind her shoulders before answering.

"Ah, it should take three days to take effect. It'll lessen the intensity of the infection either way. However, the hearing loss is another issue entirely. I can't tell if it's severely affected his eardrum so I _highly_ suggest you see his specialist as soon as possible. These drops will help, but not entirely. I'm just the emergency room general doctor," she said. "You're going to have to make an appointment with your son's specialist."

Burt frowned in annoyance at the woman's reprimand but nodded in understanding nonetheless. She'd helped his son so the least he could do is put up with a lecture.

The frown remained in place when he realized he'd have to translate all of that on to paper. Carole obviously realized his predicament and patted Burt's hand. "Don't worry I'm sure I can handle telling him that, besides, I think Kurt would much rather read my writing as opposed to your unintelligible scrawl."

Burt couldn't help but smile a bit at her attempt at lightening this situation in any way she could.

He turned from his wife writing fervently to try and focus on how the other kids in the room were handling the news. Blaine seemed relieved, which he guess was nice, the kid had been a great help after all. Finn on the other hand, he looked happy, but confused.

"So, he'll be okay now?"

Burt meant to answer his stepson, but Blaine had interrupted with what he had in mind to say anyway.

"He should be."

"Well that's good, right?" Finn hesitantly pushed for more answers, he seemed hopeful, but apparently he didn't want to be _too_ hopeful.

"Yeah, 'suppose it is." Burt replied with a slight smile as he stared at Kurt and resisted the urge to rub his back to try and comfort him like he did when he was a babe. He still seemed to startle easily when it came to others touching him. He sagged in his uncomfortably hard plastic chair with relief, while some details were vague, at least he knew his son wouldn't be in pain any longer.

For that he was immensely grateful, because in the end all he wanted was for Kurt to get well again. _God_, he continued to gaze at Kurt (who was reading the doctor's reply to his question and frowning), how he missed his kid's voice.

If he ever heard it again, he knew he would cherish every conversation with him even more so than he had before. Someone once told him, y_ou don't know what you have until it's gone_, and he had never fully appreciated that sentiment until now.

And Kurt, while it was his ears that were hurting, in so many ways it was really his heart. So many small pieces of his boy's heart were missing, and he needed them back, so he could have _Kurt _back. If Kurt couldn't be happy, if he couldn't dream his dreams and fulfill them, then he couldn't be Kurt.

Burt didn't want to lose his son. Hell, no father would. But Kurt was strong, and as he clutched at the fragile white bag containing his medicine, Burt knew that if anyone could pull out of this it would be his son.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

The next few days of Kurt's life seemed endless. He'd gone to his specialist, as directed, but all he'd gotten was the same diatribe the emergency room doctor had given him. The ear drops were all he had to work with for now, and perhaps some strong Tylenol for his head. He wouldn't know any definite readings about his hearing until the infection was healed and he could have another hearing exam, which he loathed having to do in the first place, before any of this insanity had happened.

So after three days of agonizing silence and much too many texts to Blaine, one thing happened that filled him with hope, even if only for the time being.

He'd been moping on the living room couch when he'd felt it, that was the first obvious sensation, the couch was _vibrating. _The vase on the coffee table looked ready to topple over from its constant quaking, and he's positive if he looked over at the shelf holding their family pictures they'd jumping as if they could dance.

Being the curious cat he deemed himself to be, he crept up the stairs and headed straight towards where the disturbance came from and just like that, he'd heard it.

"_Don't stop… believing, hold on to that feeling!" w_as bouncing off the walls, so loud that Kurt's ears ached as if a church bell had rung right beside his ear.

He walked straight up to Finn's bedroom door and pounded on it as hard as he could, and apparently that was enough because he could hear Finn trip over his probably moss inhabited mess of a room before throwing open his door and closing it to the intense noise of his music.

"Oh, dude." Finn awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck before holding his hands out and speaking slowly, "I need to get a notebook." he turned around to get said book when Kurt poked his shoulder to get his attention.

Finn turned around to put his arms out as if to say, _'Wait' _butKurt had had enough of this charade and rather than force Finn to hunt through his safari of his room for a notebook, he decided to show Finn what he'd intended to from the get-go.

"Your music is disturbingly loud," Kurt simply said, proud that his voice hadn't cracked from his own excitement, or lack of use.

Finn tripped over his sneakers in the doorway in his shock before stumbling back, and almost landed on top of Kurt.

"Oh My God, dude! You just spoke to me!" Finn stepped back with a pleasantly shocked expression on his face.

"Yes Finn, I know," Kurt replied with a slight smile, he should have seen that reaction coming.

"No Dude, I mean _you_ spoke to _me_! I gotta call Burt!"

"Ah-Before you do that, I feel I have a better idea." Kurt said before Finn could fish out his phone from his garish Target-manufactured jeans.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

A/N:

In regards to medical terms, I had my ear infection a while ago and the internets wasn't too helpful on the details I needed so if say the medical treatment isn't accurate I sincerely apologize, but they _are_ based off real life so I know they're plausible.

I know I said this would be the last chapter but then my beta was like, 'hey this could be a good ending for the chap.' Which honestly, I didn't even consider splitting it, but DUDE SHE'S RIGHT! So, hopefully I won't have like 5 more chapters of me saying 'the next chapter will be the last', because the next one really _should _be the last. I'll be continuing the last scene as well as a lil somethin' somethin' my beta mentioned wanting a few chapters ago. ;) Something I've been both nervous and excited to flesh out and write a full scene for!

I hope you liked this chapter and **please review,** your thoughts always help keep my writing fresh and in line with staying awesome.

Apologies for the long authors note, you've all been so awesome so I can't help but try and give as much detail as I can.

*BIG HUGS TO YOU *


	11. Chapter 11

The muffled sound of the engines roaring, and rotating tires only slightly grated upon Kurt's [thankfully] functioning ears. Finn had been more than willing to go with Kurt to tell his Dad in person, but first he insisted they get ear him ear plugs. Apparently Kurt wasn't the only one freaked out by his sudden loss-then-gain of hearing.

He straightened his favorite simple, white lip service jacket. He knew it wasn't smart to wear _white _to a car garage with grease and things, but hell, he needed the boost in his confidence while the world still felt off-kilter. (Still, he tensed in his jacket.)

His father's back was turned to him as he was peering into what Kurt believed to be their worst employee, Tim's, latest disaster.

"If the man says he needs his oil change, why do you think that'd mean 'let's overflow their window fluid tank?' That's _it,_ from now on we're keeping you on washing duty until you somehow find your competence as for the rest of you-"

Burt's tirade was cut short because as he turned around his irate gaze softened upon seeing Kurt standing beside Finn, fiddling with his jacket, and obviously trying not to look away from his father's inquiring eyes.

"Um," Kurt's voice cracked nervously, but he tried again before his father woke from his shocked stupor. "You really shouldn't get all worked up over poor Tim, Dad. It's not good for your heart."

Burt's eyes were still wide with shock as he slowly stepped towards Kurt, and placed his dirty, grease-ridden, suddenly shaking hands over Kurt's ears. He seemed to stroke them for a moment, before tilting Kurt's head so their eyes met once again.

He whispered, so softly, that Kurt wondered if he'd heard him at all, "What did you say?" but he knew he heard his Dad. He knew it moments after his Dad had spoken. He offered him a shaky smile, trying to stop the tears of pure joy that were trying to run free from his eyes when he replied, "I just heard you yelling and you know with your heart you shouldn't-"

Once again, words were cut short, but this time it was because Burt had swiftly released Kurt's ears from his hold, only to bring Kurt into the fold of his arms.

"Damn my heart," he murmured, "_you're _my heart."

Kurt knew that this was an overly sentimental moment, he knew he'd cherish those words for years, and he also knew despite being able to talk this wasn't a time to do so. He couldn't fill this void of silence with conversation because all that needed to be said had been done.

With the whirring of car's being fixed in the background, with the sudden, striking realization that the world kept moving despite such shaking events in his life, all Kurt felt was left to do was simply reach out his hand.

When Finn clasped his hand and squeezed it reassuringly, Kurt knew everything would be okay.

His eyes widened then – there were so many other people he had to tell!

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Walking through the chaotic halls of Dalton that following Tuesday morning felt like returning to a foreign land. Every noise and nuance he heard felt like it was the first time he was hearing it. When he walked into the dining hall and passed a boy munching upon an apple, the sweet crunch periodically caused him to smile as the thunder of chatter in the hall seemed to quiet significantly when he made his way towards the Warblers table section.

Oh no, he his breath caught upon catching the change in volume, was he already losing his hearing again?

This unimaginable thought was immediately proven wrong when he glanced around and realized _everyone _was looking at him.

Before he took take his seat beside Blaine's [surprisingly] empty one, David stepped before him and grasped his shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Oh, I missed you too David, no I'm great, my weekend wasn't insane at all," replied Kurt sarcastically. He tried to step out of his roommate's hold, but it was futile.

"No man, I mean, jeez! Blaine's been a wreck these past few days after your breakdown at your house and he would barely tell us anything. I don't even know how you're _talking _right now. Somehow news got out that a Warbler was injured and you'd think someone went and shot up the school around here. Guys have been practically fawning over Blaine's gelled little head just in hopes they could get more information out of him. Basically, what the hell?" David exclaimed as he pulled Kurt into a hug.

His outburst spurred on the rest of the Warblers seated to spring forward and soon enough Kurt was engulfed in a sea of hugs and smiles. Obviously, he didn't need to explain his recovery, his friends were just relieved he was back and healthy again. The other student's, not included within the small Warbler huddle, kept gazing over at their section unashamed in their curiosity, but Kurt simply looked away, they could find out some other time. He blinked back tears, the corners of his lips quirking up despite his best efforts.

He stumbled forward when someone yanked him by the arm and proceeded to drag him out into the hall, continuing to pull him towards the dorms. Kurt tripped on his feet as Wes pulled him along with long strides.

"W-Wes!" squeaked Kurt, twisting his wrist to loosen Wes's iron grip.

"Quiet, Warbler Kurt, the less questions you ask, the quicker this will go. Glad you're doing better by the way," he ended with a small smile.

Kurt fought back his own smile, suddenly this day was going much faster than he had anticipated and he just hoped Wes wasn't dragging him off towards their rehearsal room to try and run him through his paces. He may have recovered, but he had no idea when, _if he'd ever, _be prepared to start singing again. Kurt winced at the thought of how much damage his voice could've suffered over the course of his ailment.

They abruptly stopped before the generic, yet beautifully crafted mahogany door of a dorm room. They were never marked clearly, at least not with the normal room numbers. Instead each student was allowed to design a unique doorway ornament to be placed above the arch of their door. When Kurt looked up and saw the carved Beagle he visibly relaxed. Wes was just taking him to Blaine's room, to see Blaine, right?

"Um, Wes?" Kurt hesitantly poked the Council member's shoulder.

"Shh." He gently pushed his way into Blaine's open dorm as he whispered to Kurt, "I was supposed to bring him breakfast, he's been moping in bed, but I think he'll enjoy you more."

Kurt blushed, did Wes even realize what he was saying? Probably not, he decided, Wes was a person who completely missed double entendres.

"Hey buddy, look what I got." Wes sounded like a kid offering his pet dog a chew toy, Kurt hoped he wasn't being thought of as a chew toy, because, _ew_. (Kurt resolutely refused to think about Blaine's tongue on his skin with all the enthusiasm of a puppy.)

Blaine lifted himself from his pillow and tiredly turned to Wes with a frown. "I swear to God Wes if you've brought me _another _one of those creepy tea remedies I'll-"

Blaine stopped as their eyes connected. Blaine's face was as pale as Kurt's own, and just as Kurt was about to break the silence Wes decided to do so for him.

"Well, aren't you going to say hello to our youngest Warbler? It's not as if you haven't missed him enough to prompt a teary-eyed Disney moment reunion," Wes added with a chuckle. Kurt wondered if it was worth it to sock Wes in the arm to stop his commentary.

Kurt pulled his arm from Wes's grasp with a scoff. "I'll have you know, _Wesley_, I am not the youngest of the Warblers, and thank _you _for ruining my potential Disney moment."

He proceeded to try and shove Wes out the door, but was halted by the vice grip of Blaine's hand on his arm.

Kurt turned to face him, but Blaine had other ideas. He soon found himself flush up against Blaine in the tightest of hugs he'd ever felt.

"You're okay" Blaine whispered, burying his head in Kurt's neck and breathing deeply as if he couldn't believe such a revelation. If Kurt was honest with himself, he knew a day ago he wouldn't have believed this outcome either.

Instead of trying to pull back to speak or to look into his friend's eyes, he shuffled closer and gripped Blaine's wrinkled T-shirt and whispered, "I am now."

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Kurt slumped into the doctor's office chair; he_ hated_ hearing exams more than anything in the world. He'd even sell half his McQueen fall collection – mind you, it'd be last year's collection – just so he could avoid such tedious sessions. Kurt didn't take disappointment lightly, and he twisted in his seat, hoping that the results of his hearing test would prove positive.

Maybe it was easy for some people to take these tests, but not for him, especially not after what happened last weekend. He still couldn't shake the fear that he'd suddenly lose his hearing again. What if this appointment proved his fears to be justified, what would happen then? With all the miracles that Kurt had been getting lately, he worried that things would turn bad again.

He bit his lip and turned to face his father just as the Doctor calmly walked in and closed his office door softly, and yet Kurt swore the click of it closing echoed around the room ominously.

"Ah, sorry about having to leave for a moment there," began Doctor Hine as he took off his coat and settled before them at his desk. "Now, Kurt, I believe the infection has all but cleared, correct?"

Kurt nodded quickly, he'd been cleared earlier by the doctor's aide, "You haven't been feeling any specific adverse affects or symptoms similar to what you had during your infection, have you?"

"No sir," Kurt responded quickly, tapping his fingers impatiently on his thigh. He wanted to know the results of the hearing test and he wanted to know _now._

Doctor Hine chuckled, "Quite eager to get straight into the thick of things I see. Well then, I shan't leave you waiting a moment longer. You've lost all hearing in your right ear."

Just as Kurt was sure he'd lost the ability to breathe, Doctor Hine tried his best to relieve him of any possible worries. "I know you're a singer, but answer me this. Have you noticed any changes?"

Kurt abruptly shook his head. "Um, I haven't noticed any specific problems with hearing things, but what about my singing?"

"You can still talk, can't you?" the doctor replied with a wink.

"This isn't a time to joke sir," Kurt tried to bite back a sigh of annoyance as the doctor paused for a moment to shuffle his paperwork about. The sound of papers shifting irritated Kurt.

"Have you tried singing yet? At all?"

"I can run scales fine, but I haven't tried a full blown song. I asked a friend of mine to listen in and she seems to think that I'm _almost_ as pitch perfect as her." He rolled his eyes as Doctor Hine squinted in confusion.

"Almost?"

Kurt shrugged. "When it comes to my friend Rachel, she's just saying I'm perfect in her own special way."

"Ah, I see." Dr. Hine replied with a slight smile. "Every case is different, every person is different, and while I'm no vocal coach there is no reason for you to _not_ be able to sing. Some people are blessed with excellent pitch, so perhaps that's you. Keep your friend around to help you catch any problems, but honestly, you'll have to know your own body. Especially when it comes to the talent of singing, you need to trust yourself too."

"But there's no guarantee that I could keep this hearing quality."

"Even if you'd kept more of your hearing in that ear, I wouldn't have been able to guarantee you anything. We still have to keep watch of your hearing, and to guarantee you such a thing, would be for me to lie to you. I can't lie to you, Kurt."

Both Burt and Kurt frowned, but they didn't let this news bring sadness just yet, this wasn't the news they were waiting on. It was the other ear that mattered most.

"Now to your left ear," Doctor Hines opened Kurt's newly updated chart, "I'd love to say that you've lost no less than what was already missing, but that wouldn't be true. However, I can say you've retained 75% of your hearing which is wonderful!" Upon catching Kurt biting his lip, he hastened to assure, "All is not at a lost child, don't look so forlorn."

Kurt couldn't help but feel the weight of disappointment settle upon his chest, while he knew it had been unrealistic to hope for no changes, he had done so anyway. He clenched his fist and bit his lip as he thought,_ seventy-five percent? That means nothing._

He knew that, eventually, that would be gone too.

He was broken out of his thoughts by the touch of a hand to his own. His father had placed his hand over Kurt's.

"Kid, that may not seem like a lot to you, but it sure as hell does to me! Just listen to what else the doctor has to say before you start playing that Wicked music to cheer yourself up, okay?"

Kurt nodded stiffly, what else was there to do?

"As I was saying, retaining 75% is wonderful! For all we know, it could stay that way. We have plenty of alternatives to keep this ear functioning if say your hearing _does _plummet, but for now we can just keep watch and try to give you as normal a life as possible. The only major change is we're moving your appointments up from once a year to every three months for the next two years. This has been a major development so we have to watch the pattern of loss, or lack thereof. If it's positive progression and we see no moves of you losing your hearing suddenly, we'll then lessen your appointment back to twice a year, and then once a year, hopefully."

Kurt didn't like that answer at all, but he had to look on the bright side, he knew.

He collected himself; _alright_, maybe he could do that. All he could see as a positive was that he could hear anything at all, which, he slowly realized, was kind of the point to the whole thing. It was as if a light bulb had lit up above his head. Of course, he could still hear things, and he had the opportunity to preserve that.

He wasn't exactly looking forward to more regularly scheduled hearing tests, but at least he wasn't not left guessing if the things he's doing are right or wrong. He could now be careful of his surroundings knowing that he would sooner be aware if there was any loss.

He smiled and tuned back into Doctor Hine's spiel only to realize his father and the doctor were rising and shaking hands.

"Thank you again for being so swift with these appointments, Doctor Hine," Burt said as he smiled and shook the doctor's hand far more vigorously than it seemed the man was used to. The poor Doctor was practically hopping in place with each handshake.

"Alright Dad, let's go. I want to get away from this place before they decide I need _another _exam." Kurt smiled at Dr. Hine gratefully. "Thank you," he said.

"As a matter a fact!" piped up the doctor with a chuckle.

"God, no!" Kurt shook his head, laughing along, as he tried to steer his dad towards the door. "I told you, let's go!"

Burt chuckled, and finally left the office upon further helpful pokes in the right direction by his son. Kurt turned to thank Doctor Hines again, only to jump back in surprise as the doctor stood right in front of him.

"You almost forgot this." The doctor handed over Kurt's copy of his exam results, but just as Kurt tried to tug them out of his hand the doctor held on steadfastly. He held Kurt's gaze, turning serious for a moment.

"You take care, Kurt, and remember: this isn't something that can hold you back. See you in three months," he said with a slight smile as he finally let go of the papers.

Kurt simply folded his papers in half and offered the doctor his hand to shake. "Thank you." He repeated as they shook hands.

As Kurt finally left that office beside his Dad he breathed out, exhaling deeply, and perhaps with a skip to his step, he was glad to finally have the tough part done.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

When Kurt found out that not only had the date of Nationals been moved up, but it had also been moved from New York to Nebraska due to issues with the venue and sponsorship, he took it as a sign.

While the other Warblers tutted and frowned, it's not like they necessarily _needed _him to win. Although the council had offered him a solo, he felt it was earned more through pity for his situation than talent. Let's be honest; who offers a kid a solo after he can barely stand to sing a few scales for weeks on end before realizing that he still wasn't completely confident about his voice. Was it really still the same? Has he always sounded like that? Despite many reassurances that he sounded just as good as he had before, he was still worried.

He could barely get up the nerve to sing in their technologically refined theater on karaoke night, how was he going to handle a full working show at Nationals?

No one who wanted to win, that was Kurt's opinion.

All the time now, especially when loud music or construction caused his ears to ring, he worried his lip between his teeth, hoping that it wouldn't affect his hearing. Perhaps it was too much, but Kurt knew if anyone else were in this situation they would too.

He fretted about the volume of the speakers at Nationals, and the plane ride as well. Especially when he knew they were hoping to sit closer to the stage, thus the speakers, to support New Directions. They thought he'd be excited by that, but the risk to his ears and the desperate fear of his hearing being affected, despite the fact that he could just easily use ear plugs further pushed him to decline attending Nationals. Perhaps he was overreacting, but he'd long since decided to implicate the 'better to be safe than sorry' method to his life. Even so, he felt guilty.

Once again, he was fighting himself. If the council and the other Warblers – Blaine, especially – knew of his deepest reason for not wanting to go, they might've have pushed for him to go more. He offered them a feeble excuse of being afraid to fly; none of them knew he'd never been on a plane to begin with. As for his family, well, his father already knew when he'd made his mind up there was no way it was going to be changed, especially when he'd barely given his father notice to begin with. Kurt knew it was a rather desperate attempt and he was grasping at straws, but he had been terrified of hurting their chances at Nationals by screwing up somehow.

Kurt felt rather guilty for lying to Blaine, but he knew that Blaine wouldn't be able to say _sorry, I know you've got a fear of flying but how about you come on board anyway and risk another breakdown?_, Blaine was far too much of a gentleman for that. His father definitely knew something was up, but he had merely squeezed Kurt's shoulder and made him breakfast when Kurt announced his newly-discovered fear of flying.

Kurt was thankful that he hadn't been forced to attend Nationals, but he felt guilty that The Warblers had believed him so easily. Sometimes, Kurt found himself feeling queasy late at night whenever he looked over to David's empty bed in their dorm. Sometimes, it was as if he was getting stabbed in the chest with the realization that he _could_ be there _at Nationals_ with his fellow Warblers, but instead he'd chosen the safe route, all because of such a silly reason. He desperately wanted to talk to someone about it, to have someone comfort him and tell him that he wasn't being a coward for refusing to attend Nationals, but he feared no one would understand.

So, he didn't go to Nationals, pacifying himself with the thought that he was doing them a favour, really, with his absence there would be less risk of them messing up. However, when The Warblers returned from Nationals with a second place win, the words of the council as they each reassured him that his last minute bail-out of Nationals was completely understandable sprung to his mind, and he felt it was his fault, or at least he contributed to their loss by his not being there. Show Choir could be like a football game, if you were down a man, you'd just lost an advantage.

The Warblers were invited to a celebratory party in Quinn's house, and Kurt had initially declined, considering he had played no part in their winning, but Blaine had managed to convince him with puppy eyes and the promise that they would have fun.

Quinn's home was very tastefully decorated, and if this had been any other time, Kurt would've taken his time to admire the décor and compliment Mrs. Fabray, but he didn't feel comfortable joining in on their joy. With a quick, whispered apology, he left Blaine admiring the large portrait on the dining room wall, and escaped to the garden, hoping no one would bother him at the Fabrays' far too grand marble fountain.

Now that Nationals were over, everyone had switched gears and started talking about something else – _prom. _Dalton's prom happened to coincide with McKinley's, and Kurt had been roped into discussing prom attire. Kurt would've been excited, but he knew how loud prom could be, and he feared that the speakers would affect his hearing. He wondered if he'd ever get over this fear, or if he would live his life avoiding noise. A couple of Warblers, including Blaine, who truly sent his heart racing, had asked Kurt to prom, and even when Kurt declined, they had suggested other people he could go with. It was as if they were determined to get him a date to prom. Kurt was touched, really, but he just _couldn't_.

Like Mercedes had, he doesn't think he'll ever forget that particular disagreement between them, because though he and Mercedes could get catty, they usually did that with _everyone else._

It'd started out as a simple conversation late at night concerning her prom dress, except when she'd brought up asking him for what he was sure to be the sixth time, to prom.

_"We already worked it out, if you'd just consider-"_

_"I am _not_ risking my hearing to go to a silly high school dance, Cedes, if I'm not going to Dalton's prom what makes you think I'd agree to go to McKinley's, _especially _since you know there's a certain jock I myself introduced you to months ago that is _more_ than willing to take you?"_ Kurt winced at how snappy he sounded, but he was tired and frustrated.

_She sighed, and Kurt swore to himself he could just hear her tutting under her breath. "Boo, you know I just don't feel for him like that. Taking him to prom would be leading him on. Plus having you with me, and Blaine with Brittany just seems like more fun for all of us! Come on, you know you want the chance to stick it to the rest of the school by dancing with your hot boyfriend."_

_He could just _hear_ her winking suggestively, but he didn't want to let this go. Even though he didn't quite mind having her assume Blaine was his boyfriend, one date before they left for Nationals could mean that, right? He coughed and tried to compose himself, this was not the time to allow himself to get distracted by thoughts of Blaine._

_That was better left for his French class, where the teacher insisted on them reading poems out loud over and over again._

_"I can't, Cedes. I just—can't. Losing my hearing… Well, it really made me question things. I don't _ever_ want that to happen again. I can't-I can't." He knew he was about to cry, and he swallowed, fighting to hold his tears back so he could finish the conversation._

_"I love you, Cedes, but I just, I can't, I'm sorry. Besides, we have forever to make memories. I can't make this one for you, please don't ask me to go to prom where all I'll be wondering...is if the loud music will be hurting my ears, or if I'm hearing something right, or if I'm hearing something wrong. What if I _don't_ hear someone right, does that mean something bad happened already?" He exhaled. "I'm _terrified_," he said. "I'm so, so sorry."_

"There you are!"

Kurt whipped around so fast he almost lost his balance. He gripped the edge of the fountain to keep from toppling in. Blaine stood in front of him with his hands in his pockets, head cocked slightly to the right.

"Blaine," he exhaled, relieved. At least he knew Blaine wouldn't be mad at him for ditching the party to mope.

"Hey," he replied, sounding just as relieved as Kurt, "I've been looking for you for the past half an hour. Finn swore you'd left him here without a ride."

"You could've just called my cell," Kurt said, looking anywhere but at Blaine. He wondered if Blaine would question him about disappearing so quickly – he couldn't deal with it right now.

"You left your phone on the dining room table," Blaine replied with a huff and a smile as he handed Kurt his iPhone and moved to sit himself beside Kurt at the fountain's edge. Kurt shimmied to shove his phone in his hip-hugging pants' front pocket when Blaine's next question startled him enough to look up.

"What're you doing out here? You're missing all the fun inside," Blaine said. "I know you weren't at Nationals with us, but like we've been telling you Kurt, all of us were thinking about you. We _wanted _you there. So our placing, and your friends winning, well those accomplishments are yours too."

Kurt looked up at Blaine through his lashes before straightening up. "Thanks, but I'm not sitting here due to some epic depression about missing Nationals, not really anyway. I don't regret my decision at all. I just thought I'd enjoy the night air more than the loud music they were playing in there."

Kurt tried to ignore Blaine's frown at his statement, but he couldn't ignore the pang it made in his heart. Why couldn't he worry about these things? What was so wrong with that? He'd thought that Blaine, at least, would understand, but now it seemed that he had been wrong.

"You know, that's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about."

"God no," Kurt interrupted with a groan. "Can we please not start up with the whole prom thing, _again?_" Then, to change the subject, he said, "You should go back inside, you're missing all the fun."

Blaine smiled briefly. "Well," he said. "To be honest, it's not much fun without you, and Puck keeps asking me if we've had sex yet." Blaine's cheeks coloured at the end of his sentence, and Kurt had to look away to keep from blushing. "Anyway," Blaine continued, "I was concerned about the way you refused to go out with me." Blaine was blushing again, and he said, almost sheepishly, "I understand if you don't feel the way I do, and I hope you find someone that deserves you, but we're still friends, right?"

"No Blaine, no. I mean," Kurt corrected himself. "I want to go out with you." Blaine let out a small, hopeful noise at that, and Kurt chanced a glance at Blaine's face. "I said _no_ to going to prom, you seem to have forgotten that I offered a plethora of other things we could be doing instead. For example, rather than spend a couple of hours in a room full of people, half of whom harass me daily, we could pay for an evening of dining at the most exclusive restaurant in the city, _Lovely._" His hand itched to grip Blaine's but he refrained.

Blaine replied with a brow raised, "I probably would have accepted that if it wasn't for the fact that just the other night, I heard you tell Finn how much you abhorred their décor and general lack of finesse, especially in regards to their rumored lack of actual knowledge of the French language," but he was smiling, teeth visible between his lips. Kurt watched as Blaine's hand inched towards his own, and he looked away quickly in case Blaine caught him staring.

Kurt offered his best _'bitch please'_ stare before replying. "If they can't deduce the difference between àla carte and à la mode, then I have a right to feel a little on edge about it being so popular. That was all I was trying to say."

"Nice try with trying to deflect to the topic, but I'm sure we can debate over the cuisine, or the questionable naming of _Lovely_'s dishes to be such a thing another time, I'm not going to let this go Kurt. I can't when I know you're just afraid." They were back to talking about prom now, and Kurt debated briefly if kissing Blaine would prove a thorough enough distraction so Blaine would stop asking.

"Which I have a right to be," Kurt pointed out, almost affronted.

"You do, you will always have the right to feel what you feel, but Kurt." Blaine took a deep breath before continuing. "Don't you think it's wrong to let that fear control you? You're more than that, you've always been more courageous than I thought a person could be. Don't let fear keep you from enjoying yourself, Kurt."

Kurt tried to turn away from Blaine's imploring gaze, but his focus was drawn back by the feeling of Blaine grasping his hand. Blaine's palm was warm and dry around Kurt's hand, and Blaine squeezed lightly, for reassurance.

"If you can't talk to me, then I'm going to have to assume there's more to this than what you're saying."

"What more could there be to it? All this for one silly dance, is it really necessary?" Kurt's brow crinkled as he tried to ease his hand from Blaine's, the quicker that happened, the quicker he could end this conversation.

Blaine held his hand tighter. "If this truly bothers you," Blaine said. "We won't go to prom. We can go to _Lovely_ and order in poor grammar and eat misnamed dishes, and we'll forget about this, alright?" He looked so hopeful that Kurt couldn't leave.

Kurt tried to look away from Blaine's gaze, but Blaine was so earnest that it was hard to distract himself from his wish-he-would-be boyfriend. Blaine's eyes locked with Kurt's own, and Kurt bit his lip. Blaine's eyes flickered to Kurt's lips, and then, he said, "I'm just saying, there's only so long you can hide from yourself, before you realize there's no reason for it."

"This is getting ridiculous, Blaine. Let go of my hand," Kurt demanded through clenched teeth, even though he didn't want to move. Clearly, Blaine didn't want to move either, because he held on. "Please," Kurt said, just an edge of imploring. "Let me go."

It was obvious the other boy was extremely reluctant to do so as he eased his grip half way only to raise Kurt's hand to his lips, and place a swift kiss to his knuckles.

"You need to let go of this anxiety and realize that we'd never ask you to participate in something that could hurt you. It's okay to be scared, but I'd rather you hold my hand through the fear than try to walk away from it alone." Blaine let go of his hand then, and fidgeted in his place. "Sorry," he said. "That was out of line," but he was smiling slightly.

Kurt would deny it years down the line, but he looked like a deer caught in the high-beam headlights. His heart was racing, his face was flushed, and he was pretty sure his mouth was open in a silent _oh_.

Did Blaine just do that to him?

He sputtered for a moment, trying to get his bearings about him, and shoved Blaine away slightly, feeling slightly victorious in finally having both hands free.

"You can't just go and do that!" he exclaimed, blood rushing to his cheeks. Great, Kurt was just being silly – this big a reaction over a kiss on the knuckles? Kurt didn't need his hummingbird heartbeat now, of all times. He didn't need Blaine playing with his heart now, either. He knew that Blaine kissed his hand to encourage him to give in.

"Do what?" Blaine replied faux-innocently.

"You're trying to play with me aren't you? It's not—It's not…" What he wanted to say was, _'It's not helping, it's hurting.' _Blaine's attempt at convincing him had only made Kurt's heart clench unceasingly. He could barely keep his voice steady, and eventually he gave up trying as Blaine leaned closer and closer to him. Kurt leaned back as Blaine advanced, until he felt that he could topple into the fountain at any minute.

He felt one of Blaine's arms snake around his waist and pull him in closer.

"It's not the Olympics, it's not some epic competition you need to win, and it's not a hardcore concert that could shatter glass in seconds. You, my little drama queen, need to realize that there's no way I'm going to let go of an event I recall you talking about endlessly before your hearing worsened. I don't want you to stop your own happiness because of health concerns. You can wear earplugs," Blaine said, and his hand found Kurt's again, fingers twining together with Kurt's. "Hell, _I'll_ wear earplugs."

He leaned in even closer, and Kurt stopped trying to squirm away. He wondered if Blaine could feel Kurt's pulse through their skin as Blaine ran the pad of his thumb over Kurt's wrist, tracing miniature circles.

"Right, Kurt?" Blaine was so close now that Kurt could feel the words forming on Blaine's lips against his. He shuddered, and Blaine pulled back a little to let him answer.

"Um," Kurt stuttered, missing the warmth ghost of Blaine's breath already. "Yes, absolutely," he babbled. Anything to get Blaine's lips on his again.

"So," Blaine leaned in again, breathing lightly against Kurt's lips. "Come to prom with me. Whichever one you want, Dalton's, McKinley's, heck why not add the GLBT prom in downtown Columbus! Just make these memories with me Kurt, I _promise_ you won't regret it, and whenever you get scared," he gripped Kurt's hand tighter, and Kurt squeezed back, feeling the calluses of Blaine's palm rub against his skin. "I promise you can hold my hand as tight as you need to, I'll be here." Blaine whispered, barely a millimeter from Kurt's lips.

"Yes," Kurt breathed out.

He should have expected it, he should have closed his eyes, or maybe even breathed back in because once he felt Blaine's lips upon his own the world seemed to be forgotten. The splashing of the fountain water seemed a million miles away, and the loud party music faded.

What party?

All Kurt knew was that this boy's slightly chapped lips felt more like heaven than any $700 Gucci purchase ever could be. Kurt surged forward to deepen it, his tongue licking at Blaine's bottom lip, wetting the grooves and lines. He could feel Blaine's eyelashes flutter against his cheeks, and Blaine raised a hand to cup Kurt's cheek, keeping him there. Kurt's hands tangled in Blaine's thankfully ungelled hair.

With a sudden realization, Kurt's eyes popped open and he pulled away suddenly, leaving Blaine hanging in the air for a moment with an adorable expression of shock and confusion with pouted lips and mused hair, looking thoroughly kissed.

Kurt cocked his head to the side with a smile, "Does this mean you're my boyfriend?" He had to make sure.

Blaine couldn't help but giggle as he leaned forward to share a short Eskimo kiss before replying, "Of course I am," Blaine huffed. "There is no one else I'd rather to this with." He blushed then. "Well, if you want me, that is."

Kurt knew that just because he agreed to go to prom didn't mean that his issues were fixed. On the contrary, he knew that he'd be scared once that event was set to occur, but finally have this one little piece of goodness in front of him, at least helped to center him.

"Of course I do," Kurt breathed, and Blaine kissed him again, chastely this time and closed-mouthed.

The drama of these past few weeks fell to the back of his mind as he looked at his _boyfriend, _he giggled at the thought and wondered if he'd ever get used to that. He hoped not, it seemed too precious to ever become an old thing within his mind.

Blaine stroked affectionately at Kurt's deaf ear, fingers running across his auricle. He smiled at this sensation. He knew his hearing wasn't getting better, but it hadn't gotten worse, not yet, anyhow. It wasn't perfection, and it wasn't progress, but he was fine, and that was all he needed.

Kurt stood up with the largest smile he'd shared in weeks, and extended his hand to Blaine, "Let's go back to the party, I need to make sure Rachel hasn't found Quinn's old karaoke set, I'd take on a stadium of noise before I'd try her drunk rendition of "Le Isle Bonita" _again_." He shuddered dramatically, and Blaine laughed, bouncing up behind him and gripping his hand.

They began slowly walking up the Fabrays' elaborate driveway towards the house interior with their hands swinging in comfortable silence.

So much had happened in this garden within the last few minutes, and Kurt was just beginning to realize what had truly just happened.

Maybe, he realized, the problem all this time had been that he hadn't listened. Not in the literal sense of the word, but to his heart.

He'd been so frightened, because losing his actual hearing truly sent him into a level of shock he'd never experience before, and he'd forgotten not only how to listen to every noise in a crowded room, but how to listen to his heart.

As they began their journey through the maze-like halls of the Fabray home, Kurt stopped Blaine and leaned in to kiss his cheek.

The other boy didn't know it – or perhaps he did – but it was a silent thank you for reminding him that there was a heart to listen to as well. He wasn't completely fearless, and would never really be, but that was the good thing. He had struck a balance and Blaine had helped him with that. Kurt hoped that, if he was ever to have such a crisis, he would remember to listen to his heart.

"You should, you know, more often," Blaine said. "Listen to your heart, I mean."

"I am," Kurt assured him.

"Yeah?" Blaine grinned. "What's it saying?"

Kurt pressed a quick kiss to the corner of Blaine's mouth, a teasing promise to something more. "Thank you," he murmurs.

**The End.**

Thank you all SO MUCH for being patient with me while I finished this fic up. I hope you all enjoyed it!

Truly this wonderful adventure into my first multi-chapter fanfic couldn't have been done without my lovely beta! If you enjoyed this fanfic, particularly those last few lines because there is NO WAY I'm finished this without letting you know SHE added that, then I urge you to go check out her work. She can be found on fanfiction dot net as "ToCarveLoveOnHerArms"; and Livejournal as "dreamerofmonday". She's truly been a wonderful beta and if you're lucky enough to have her help with your fanfiction then I know you'll have an epic piece of work on your hands.

I know this fanfic isn't a master piece or anything, but it was great fun to write and truly I can't thank all of you who reviewed/favorited/put on your alerts list, enough! There were days I'd lose confidence and there you were! Proving to me that someone enjoyed this just as much as I do.

So thank you and for one final time on this fanfic, _**review?**_

:)


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